Dietitian Influencers Paid to Promote Diet Drinks and Added Sugar

In case you missed the headlines, dietitian influencers re being called out and implicated for accepting payment to promote diet drinks and sugary beverages. The Washington post, and other whistleblowers, published a story recently to shine a light on the alleged corruption and take a stance against these types of behaviors.

First of all, as dietitians, we agree wholeheartedly that we should be held at a higher standard, especially on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram. The line gets crossed when you have credentialed healthcare providers promoting products based on the paycheck instead of prioritizing public health and the evidence behind these products. Further when it’s done covertly and paid posts are not clearly disclosed, it can become even more dubious. 

Second, what makes this particular topic so difficult is that the messages they were promoting might very well align with their messages overall. Some of the posts pointed out the issue with cutting all sugar in your diet or the lack of research behind artificial consumption in general. While the companies who paid these RDs sought to have them support consumption of diet soda or other sugary drinks, the dietitians didn’t veer off too much from their consistent message: EVERYTHING IS OK IN MODERATION. And that, we also can agree with them on.

Regardless of any of the above and whether dietitian influencers are being paid to promote products or not, it’s important to acknowledge the following:

1. It is incredibly challenging to get sound nutrition advice and navigate through the surplus of dense, disillusioning and dogmatic opinions that contaminate our news sources.

2. There is no one size fits all when it comes to healthy eating - for some, hearing that artificial sweeteners and sugar are not the devil can actually be really refreshing for many populations that struggle with eating disorders and disordered eating. Further, we know that, as of today, we don’t have sufficient compelling evidence to categorically demonize artificial sweeteners.

3. Consumers ALWAYS have a choice with what they choose to read, believe and buy into. While we hope to have a world where we can always entrust in our news sources and media messaging, this is not the reality we live in. 

So what now?

Be your own advocate, trust your instinct, and PLEASE JUST scroll past anything that sounds nonsensical on social media.

For more personalized guidance, working 1:1 with a dietitian BTS (behind the scenes) can be a game changer. Click here now and chat with a real RD.