Food heroes and villains
The Food Chain
BBC
4.7 • 545 Ratings
🗓️ 11 December 2025
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
***This programme contains conversations about disordered eating which some listeners may find upsetting*** Social media is awash with nutritional misinformation with foods often cast as superheroes or villains. So how can we separate fact from fiction? And how can we know what posts we can trust?
Social media loves to portray some foods, like carbs, sugar and seed oils as villains, to be avoided at all costs.Other food groups like protein are often claimed to be food heroes and some social media influencers tell their followers to prioritise those foods and cut out others. Ruth Alexander looks at the truth of some of those claims and the impact it can have on those who believe them and end up restricting their diets as a result.
Cecile Simmons tells Ruth how she "fell down the rabbit hole" and ended up cutting out dozens of foods in an attempt to cure a skin condition.
Personal trainer and nutrition expert Michael Ulloa explains how he's made it his mission to fight food misinformation online. Plus Ruth hears from Dr Emily Denniss, registered public health nutritionist and lecturer at Deakin University in Australia, who has studied the spread of food misinformation on social media. And with the help of US based registered dietician Grace Derocha, Ruth separates food fact from food fiction.
Producer: LexyO'Connor Sound engineer: Gareth Jones
(Image: A comic book cartoon of a blond, muscle-superhero in a blue suit and yellow cape is flying through the air towards a baddie in a red suit with their fists outstretched as if ready to fight. Credit: Yogysic/Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio Podcasts. |
| 0:05.6 | Oh, hello. You have chosen a BBC podcast, but before you listen to it, we thought you might like our podcast too. |
| 0:12.1 | You might. You might. It is called Sightraught with me Nick Grimshaw. |
| 0:15.2 | And me, Annie Mack. And we talk about the week in music. |
| 0:18.2 | All the news, all the cultural happenings in the UK and beyond. |
| 0:22.2 | And great guests. And it's on BBC Sounds. Yes, where you can also enjoy lots of |
| 0:27.1 | playlists, music mixes and live radio. Everything from my six music breakfast show to Radio |
| 0:33.2 | 3 Unwind. But obviously start with our podcast, sidetrack. Obviously. Obviously. So if you like music, |
| 0:39.1 | listen on BBC sounds. Does anyone else feel like they spend five minutes on social media and they |
| 0:45.9 | feel like their IQ has dropped? Hello and welcome to the food chain from the BBC World Service with me, |
| 0:52.6 | Ruth Alexander. Videos like this make me want to punch myself in the face. |
| 0:56.1 | These are the same people that tell you personal trainers need to be absolutely |
| 0:58.8 | That's Michael EJewa, a fitness coach who's built a following debunking online misinformation, |
| 1:04.0 | which is what this episode is all about. |
| 1:06.7 | We're going to be examining some of social media's wildest wellness claims. |
| 1:11.7 | The food and drinks we're told of fear, and those we're told are near miraculous. |
| 1:16.9 | I did enjoy on your feed a video you were critiquing where, |
| 1:23.0 | kind of just with your facial expressions, |
| 1:25.0 | where somebody was swirling water and saying, |
| 1:27.5 | if you swirl water in the glass and you basically change its composition and it's good for you. |
| 1:32.3 | I know. I always think I've got a better poker face than I do, and I get messages telling me that |
| 1:36.1 | my face gives everything away. It does. Yeah. I'd just like to try and have a bit of a laugh, |
... |
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