673 - Dietitian Influencers On Social Media Are Being Paid By the Food Industry to Promote Products and Messages
Public Health On Call
The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
4.6 • 644 Ratings
🗓️ 11 October 2023
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Registered dietitians with huge social media followings are getting paid to promote sugar, supplements, and other products and messages that clash with evidence-based recommendations—at times without proper disclosure. Sasha Chavkin, a reporter with The Examination, talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about the food industry's stealthy tactic to exploit the power that influencers can have on social media, and how this raises questions for the ethics of professional dietitians. Read The Examination's report here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2023/09/13/dietitian-instagram-tiktok-paid-food-industry/
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Public Health On Call, a podcast from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, |
| 0:05.9 | where we bring evidence, experience, and perspective to make sense of today's leading health challenges. |
| 0:16.3 | If you have questions or ideas for us, please send an email to public health question at jhh.edu. |
| 0:23.8 | That's public health question at jhhu.edu for future podcast episodes. |
| 0:32.2 | This is Lindsay Smith-Rogers, producer of public health on call. |
| 0:36.3 | Today, TikTok, Instagram, and nutrition. |
| 0:40.2 | Sasha Chofkin is a correspondent with the examination, a new media outlet investigating issues |
| 0:45.8 | in global public health. He joins Dr. Josh Sharfstein to talk about dietitians who are also |
| 0:52.1 | social media influencers. Spoiler alert, buyer beware. Let's listen. |
| 0:58.8 | Sasha Chapkin, thank you so much for joining me in public health on call to talk about this |
| 1:03.1 | investigation that you led for the examination. But before we talk about the investigation, |
| 1:09.3 | what's the examination? |
| 1:16.3 | We are a new investigative newsroom that covers global public health. |
| 1:23.1 | We look into preventable health threats and who and what are responsible for them. |
| 1:27.2 | When we do that by collaborating with news outlets around the world. And how many journalists are involved? |
| 1:30.3 | As of now, we have about 12 people on staff. |
| 1:35.3 | We are just starting and we're growing. |
| 1:38.3 | And where can people find the examination? |
| 1:40.3 | You can go to theexamination.org and you'll see all our stories. |
| 1:46.0 | Now some of them will appear in other news outlets, like you said, their collaborations, |
| 1:50.0 | and you recently wrote a story with The Washington Post. |
| 1:54.0 | That's the investigation I want to talk about today. Tell me about it. |
... |
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