Latest / The Antisocial Doctors Podcast / Episode 6: Is it Helpful to Know #WhatIEatInADay?

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Episode 6: Is it Helpful to Know #WhatIEatInADay? · The Antisocial Doctors Podcast

• 1:27
  Sonia Singh MD: You are listening to the Antisocial Doctors Podcast, hosted by me, Sonia Singh, a board certified internal medicine physician with a Master's in nutrition and a special interest in health anxiety
• 1:38
  Rebecca Berens MD: and me, Rebecca Barons, a board certified family medicine physician with a special interest in disordered eating.
• 1:43
  Sonia Singh MD: We're also a millennial women anxious moms and curious humans navigating social media.
• 1:48
  Sonia Singh MD: We've seen firsthand how these platforms can be powerful tools for education and connection, but can also make us unwell.
• 1:56
  Rebecca Berens MD: This podcast is meant to be the antidote to your doom.
• 1:58
  Rebecca Berens MD: Scrolling, a solve for the anxiety, stress, guilt, shame, and confusion that comes from social media's messaging around health.
• 2:05
  Rebecca Berens MD: In each episode, we discuss a health related topic, trending on social media with curiosity, nuance evidence, humility, and compassion.
• 2:12
  Sonia Singh MD: This is not your average debunking podcast.
• 2:14
  Sonia Singh MD: We wanna explore not just what is trending on social media, but why?
• 2:18
  Sonia Singh MD: Why are so many people drawn to this?
• 2:20
  Sonia Singh MD: What is the nugget of truth here?
• 2:21
  Sonia Singh MD: What are the facts?
• 2:23
  Sonia Singh MD: What can we learn from this as patients and doctors?
• 2:25
  Sonia Singh MD: No shame.
• 2:26
  Sonia Singh MD: No blame, no snark.
• 2:27
  Rebecca Berens MD: We're so glad you're here.
• 2:37
  Sonia Singh MD: All right.
• 2:38
  Sonia Singh MD: Good afternoon, Rebecca.
• 2:40
  Sonia Singh MD: Good afternoon, Sonya.
• 2:42
  Sonia Singh MD: So we're, if this eventually video, if the videos of this podcast eventually make it to some platform, you may notice that we have switched to being our own homes or offices, rather than being in a studio just'cause.
• 2:55
  Sonia Singh MD: We too are busy moms that have a hard time getting our physical bodies in one place together.
• 3:01
  Sonia Singh MD: It's a
• 3:02
  Rebecca Berens MD: challenge.
• 3:03
  Sonia Singh MD: Yes.
• 3:03
  Sonia Singh MD: Anyway I'm really excited to cover this week's topic.
• 3:06
  Sonia Singh MD: I know you've been excited to cover it for a while.
• 3:08
  Sonia Singh MD: Oh yeah.
• 3:08
  Sonia Singh MD: So tell us a little bit, we, we couldn't even help ourselves.
• 3:11
  Sonia Singh MD: We started chatting before we even started recording about this, and we're off to the races.
• 3:15
  Sonia Singh MD: But anyway, we're starting at the top.
• 3:17
  Sonia Singh MD: So tell us, what is this week's claim and what was the inspiration for covering this topic?
• 3:23
  Rebecca Berens MD: Yeah.
• 3:23
  Rebecca Berens MD: So, this week we're gonna be asking is it helpful to know hashtag what I eat in a day.
• 3:29
  Rebecca Berens MD: And this is not something that I've ever had a patient directly bring up to me in a visit.
• 3:33
  Rebecca Berens MD: In some ways, you know, a lot of the other things we've covered are questions we've directly gotten from patients.
• 3:39
  Rebecca Berens MD: Or heard, brought up in some way by patients, like they've seen a claim online and they're asking about it.
• 3:43
  Rebecca Berens MD: This one's a little bit more insidious because I don't think anyone directly says oh, I saw this.
• 3:48
  Rebecca Berens MD: What I eat in a day video.
• 3:49
  Rebecca Berens MD: Is this what I should eat in a day?
• 3:50
  Rebecca Berens MD: No one's really asking that, but people are coming in.
• 3:53
  Rebecca Berens MD: Saying I know what I should be doing or I'm trying to eat clean, or I'm trying to manage whatever condition with diet and exercise and this is what I'm supposed to do to do that.
• 4:05
  Rebecca Berens MD: And the where is that information coming from?
• 4:08
  Rebecca Berens MD: I think a lot of times it's coming from content like this.
• 4:12
  Rebecca Berens MD: Mm-hmm.
• 4:13
  Rebecca Berens MD: Um, so that's what I wanna talk about today.
• 4:15
  Rebecca Berens MD: So the claim is a little bit more implicit in these videos.
• 4:18
  Rebecca Berens MD: Mm-hmm.
• 4:18
  Rebecca Berens MD: It's not so direct as it is with some of our others, but, but I definitely think there is outright claims being made by these, uh, videos just in a more insidious way that's not so obvious.
• 4:29
  Sonia Singh MD: Yeah.
• 4:29
  Sonia Singh MD: I think just having a conversation about.
• 4:32
  Sonia Singh MD: What are these videos actually saying to us?
• 4:35
  Sonia Singh MD: Or what are we looking for in them, or what, what does this information mean?
• 4:39
  Sonia Singh MD: I think that question is just really interesting in itself, but I think you're right that, in a lot of ways it's sort of setting the ideal, like it's setting the standard for a lot of people of what they sh.
• 4:50
  Sonia Singh MD: Doing and what they should be aspiring to.
• 4:51
  Sonia Singh MD: And they don't even realize that it's doing that, but that's what it's doing.
• 4:56
  Sonia Singh MD: And so I think we see the manifestations of that when people come in having these expectations for themselves and their, what, you know, what they're eating and putting in their bodies that is modeled off of some of these things.
• 5:06
  Sonia Singh MD: And because like you said, it's so insidious, they may not even be questioning well, is that how I should actually be eating?
• 5:12
  Sonia Singh MD: It's accepted that is.
• 5:14
  Sonia Singh MD: The best way, okay.
• 5:15
  Sonia Singh MD: Well cool.
• 5:16
  Sonia Singh MD: So the claim is a little nebulous in this episode.
• 5:18
  Sonia Singh MD: Why do you think this category of video has become so popular?
• 5:23
  Sonia Singh MD: I mean, 10 years ago, I don't even think I would've had any concept of what this idea was.
• 5:28
  Sonia Singh MD: And now when you say, hashtag what I eat a day, I'm like.
• 5:31
  Sonia Singh MD: Oh yes, I know exactly what those videos are.
• 5:33
  Rebecca Berens MD: Yeah.
• 5:33
  Rebecca Berens MD: So lemme, I'll just describe an example of what I'm talking about just in case anyone is not sure what I mean.
• 5:37
  Rebecca Berens MD: So the, what I eat in a day videos we have all seen them.
• 5:40
  Rebecca Berens MD: Essentially it's some person sharing their meals and snacks.
• 5:45
  Rebecca Berens MD: Throughout the day, and they're usually eating them or preparing them or doing, interacting with the food in some way.
• 5:50
  Rebecca Berens MD: It's not just a picture.
• 5:52
  Rebecca Berens MD: And they sometimes are also interacting other aspects of their day, like they're working at their computer while also eating their lunch or they're, doing a workout, and then they're carrying their protein shake out after their workout or they're playing with their kids or baking cookies with their kids or whatever.
• 6:06
  Rebecca Berens MD: And they usually are.
• 6:08
  Rebecca Berens MD: Saying like what I eat in a day as a person.
• 6:13
  Rebecca Berens MD: Managing PCOS naturally or as a postpartum mom trying to lose weight.
• 6:17
  Rebecca Berens MD: So there's sort of inherently a claim that this is what I'm doing to manage this health condition or for, to reach this health goal.
• 6:24
  Rebecca Berens MD: Mm-hmm.
• 6:24
  Rebecca Berens MD: Without directly saying it.
• 6:27
  Rebecca Berens MD: Okay.
• 6:27
  Rebecca Berens MD: And and so the sort of the, the, what is implied there is if you want to look like me or if you want to, if you have the same goal as I do, this is what you should be doing.
• 6:35
  Rebecca Berens MD: And it's also sort of creating this, tie to identity around your food choices that if you are this kind of person Your choices about food define you, if you do this this certain way, you'll be, you'll be able to identify as this kind of person.
• 6:50
  Rebecca Berens MD: So there's both health claims and then also sort of like identity claims coming with it.
• 6:54
  Rebecca Berens MD: And I think, in terms of virality, we as humans are interested, intrinsically interested in other humans, we are.
• 7:00
  Rebecca Berens MD: We are wired to be social and to wanna know what other people are doing.
• 7:03
  Rebecca Berens MD: And eating and sharing meals is a hardwired human activity.
• 7:08
  Rebecca Berens MD: Like every culture has shared meals as a part of the culture.
• 7:12
  Rebecca Berens MD: And because it's, it's just something that is, is part of us as humans.
• 7:17
  Rebecca Berens MD: And increasingly, especially nowadays with, through the pandemic and with social media, even before the pandemic there was increasing.
• 7:25
  Rebecca Berens MD: Isolation and loneliness and spending less time eating with other people.
• 7:30
  Rebecca Berens MD: There was actually a, the World Happiness Report in 2025 that I found that showed, there's clear evidence that Americans in particular are spending more and more time dining alone.
• 7:40
  Rebecca Berens MD: In 20 23, 1 in four Americans reported eating all their meals alone the previous day, which was an increase of 53% since 2003.
• 7:48
  Rebecca Berens MD: And it has increased in all age groups, but particularly for young people.
• 7:52
  Rebecca Berens MD: So not only do we have, just general social isolation, but we also have isolation during this very hardwired human moment of connection of sharing a meal.
• 8:01
  Rebecca Berens MD: And is this our way of sort of trying to, are we drawn to this to try to replace that missing connection?
• 8:08
  Rebecca Berens MD: I think the other thing is that we have this, Sort of idolization of certain body types or, a certain goal that we wanna reach and we see a person who has what we want and we think, I want that.
• 8:20
  Rebecca Berens MD: If I do what they do, I'll get what they have.
• 8:23
  Rebecca Berens MD: And so it just sort of, reinforces that sort of inherent belief that we have.
• 8:27
  Rebecca Berens MD: Whether or not that's true it reinforces that when we see that kind of content.
• 8:32
  Rebecca Berens MD: I also found this very interesting.
• 8:34
  Rebecca Berens MD: Term that I had never heard of before that I hope I'm gonna pronounce correctly, it's called Muck Bang.
• 8:39
  Rebecca Berens MD: Which is, a Korean word that combines the words for eating and broadcasting.
• 8:44
  Rebecca Berens MD: And these are videos specifically that showcase people eating that, includes a lot of the sensory elements, like sounds and things like that.
• 8:52
  Rebecca Berens MD: That some people are drawn to based on A SMR, the autonomous sensory meridian response.
• 8:57
  Rebecca Berens MD: So people have a positive sensory response from hearing and seeing someone else eating, which is a whole other category of this that it was so interesting to me'cause I'd never heard of it before.
• 9:08
  Rebecca Berens MD: But I think is also being integrated into a lot of these videos.
• 9:11
  Rebecca Berens MD: 'cause a lot of these videos do show people actually.
• 9:14
  Rebecca Berens MD: Actively eating, not just mm-hmm.
• 9:16
  Rebecca Berens MD: The pictures of the food, which is very different than going to a website that has a recipe picture, right.
• 9:22
  Rebecca Berens MD: And shows you a picture of a plate.
• 9:24
  Rebecca Berens MD: You're actually seeing someone eating.
• 9:25
  Rebecca Berens MD: And whether that's tied to our social connection of the sounds of, of people eating or not.
• 9:30
  Rebecca Berens MD: I don't know.
• 9:31
  Rebecca Berens MD: But that was just a whole other interesting area of this that actually does have some research on it as well that we'll talk about.
• 9:37
  Sonia Singh MD: That's so interesting.
• 9:38
  Sonia Singh MD: Again, on the surface, this just seems like such a little silly fad of a, type of viral video.
• 9:44
  Sonia Singh MD: But that, all of that makes a lot of sense.
• 9:46
  Sonia Singh MD: I think a thing that comes into my mind a lot about why I would be drawn to it or why, I don't know, I, I feel like this is my inner thing of why I feel drawn to it, is kind of knowing.
• 9:56
  Sonia Singh MD: Am I normal?
• 9:57
  Sonia Singh MD: Is what I do normal?
• 9:58
  Sonia Singh MD: And what, what you're describing of like people being increasingly isolated and not having meals together, you may not know what your friends eat for lunch'cause you never eat lunch with them.
• 10:08
  Sonia Singh MD: So you are kind of curious about what they're eating and how their lunch looks.
• 10:12
  Sonia Singh MD: I think, there's, the other thing I would say is I think there's just increasing noise and confusion about food generally.
• 10:19
  Sonia Singh MD: There's just.
• 10:19
  Sonia Singh MD: So much information coming at us, like on social media and in the news and everywhere, just about the food and the food supply and what's good and what's bad.
• 10:27
  Sonia Singh MD: And I remember I had a patient just a few weeks ago tell me I just, I don't even know what to eat for breakfast.
• 10:32
  Sonia Singh MD: And I was like, well, what do you like?
• 10:33
  Sonia Singh MD: And she was like, I like yogurt.
• 10:34
  Sonia Singh MD: And I was like, you can eat yogurt.
• 10:35
  Sonia Singh MD: And she was like, well, but there's so many types that I, I, I started eating one and then I heard that that type was maybe bad.
• 10:41
  Sonia Singh MD: And then maybe there was another one that was.
• 10:43
  Sonia Singh MD: I'm like, I just, she was so overwhelmed by the amount of stuff that was coming at her that I think to see a person that you would like to be like, or that you would like to emulate or you think shares your goals, values, whatever, and to see this is exactly what they're eating, feels comforting or reassuring or feels like maybe it breaks through some of the noise and confusion.
• 11:03
  Sonia Singh MD: So, yeah, I think there's so much to why we're, I can understand that, why they're so popular and they're so viral.
• 11:09
  Sonia Singh MD: I think the first time I ever watched one was like I.
• 11:12
  Sonia Singh MD: I really like watching the Architectural Digest Celebrity on tours.
• 11:16
  Sonia Singh MD: And so I had watched the Gwyneth Paltrow one and then immediately afterwards it served me, Gwyneth Paltrow's Vogue, what I eat in a day.
• 11:25
  Sonia Singh MD: And I was like, well, this should be fascinating.
• 11:28
  Sonia Singh MD: I'm sure it was.
• 11:29
  Sonia Singh MD: It was.
• 11:30
  Sonia Singh MD: And then I think it served me like a few more in a row, and I remember one of them I was just like.
• 11:36
  Sonia Singh MD: None of that stuff was food.
• 11:38
  Sonia Singh MD: I listened to the whole thing and it was like a smoothie, a bone broth, a bar, like it was like, anyway, it was very, it was very fascinating.
• 11:46
  Sonia Singh MD: And yeah, after I watched a couple I was like, this is interesting.
• 11:50
  Sonia Singh MD: But maybe for me it was interesting for different reasons.
• 11:52
  Sonia Singh MD: Yeah.
• 11:53
  Sonia Singh MD: Anyway, yes, I see so many reasons why it's viral and a lot of those are a lot deeper than I think, would appear on the surface.
• 12:00
  Sonia Singh MD: So what is there a nugget of truth?
• 12:03
  Sonia Singh MD: Is there some value in, is there some actual value in what I eat in a day?
• 12:07
  Sonia Singh MD: Or like, what is, what is the thing that keeps us coming back?
• 12:11
  Rebecca Berens MD: Yeah, so what's the nugget of truth?
• 12:12
  Rebecca Berens MD: Presumably at least some of these people.
• 12:17
  Rebecca Berens MD: Sharing truly what they actually ate in a day.
• 12:19
  Rebecca Berens MD: I'm sure many of them are promoting a certain thing that they may have eaten that day for promotional purposes, but is this what they eat every day?
• 12:29
  Rebecca Berens MD: How much of this is true?
• 12:30
  Rebecca Berens MD: Is this a typical day for them?
• 12:31
  Rebecca Berens MD: Is this something that I ate today because I got paid to promote this product and this post is this something I am.
• 12:38
  Rebecca Berens MD: Sharing as aspirational but is not really actually reflecting my regular day to day.
• 12:43
  Rebecca Berens MD: We really don't know.
• 12:44
  Rebecca Berens MD: Right?
• 12:44
  Rebecca Berens MD: But there's probably at least some people who are truly sharing what they actually eat in a day.
• 12:49
  Rebecca Berens MD: But does it matter?
• 12:51
  Rebecca Berens MD: But that personate in a day, what does that have to do with you?
• 12:54
  Rebecca Berens MD: I think for some people they want to.
• 12:57
  Rebecca Berens MD: Share their experience.
• 12:58
  Rebecca Berens MD: Say they have a chronic illness and they're seeing another person with a chronic illness who struggles with some of the same symptoms they do and they see what they eat in a, maybe that's helpful.
• 13:07
  Rebecca Berens MD: Maybe they're like, oh, you know what?
• 13:08
  Rebecca Berens MD: I struggle with swallowing this texture of food and this other person has the same condition and they have found a way to overcome that with this.
• 13:15
  Rebecca Berens MD: Maybe that's really helpful information that you learned from and you learned, a true truth from that person of how they manage their life.
• 13:23
  Rebecca Berens MD: That's helpful to you.
• 13:24
  Rebecca Berens MD: But there's also on like the caveat that just because you do the exact same thing as something someone else, even if they have the same medical condition you do, you are a different people, there's a lot that's different about you.
• 13:34
  Rebecca Berens MD: You may not have the same outcome.
• 13:36
  Rebecca Berens MD: So how relevant is that to you?
• 13:38
  Rebecca Berens MD: I've also seen a lot of the content that's trying to be body positive to try to counteract a lot of the diet culture messaging.
• 13:44
  Rebecca Berens MD: Coming from, a lot of what I eat in a day video.
• 13:47
  Rebecca Berens MD: So I'll see things like what I eat in a day as a fat person who's not trying to lose weight.
• 13:51
  Rebecca Berens MD: Mm-hmm.
• 13:52
  Rebecca Berens MD: That kind of thing.
• 13:52
  Rebecca Berens MD: Which, maybe that's really helpful to normalize to people.
• 13:55
  Rebecca Berens MD: Like, you don't have to be following this super restrictive diet, you can just eat normal food that you enjoy for all your meals.
• 14:02
  Rebecca Berens MD: And I guess what I found interesting in the context of looking at this is there is actually research on this and how helpful is that?
• 14:08
  Rebecca Berens MD: Does that actually counteract.
• 14:09
  Rebecca Berens MD: Any of these messages, is it helpful to people to see that content or not?
• 14:13
  Rebecca Berens MD: So we'll talk about that, but I think there is a nugget of truth probably somewhere, but how relevant it is to anyone I don't really know.
• 14:23
  Sonia Singh MD: Well, so, okay.
• 14:24
  Sonia Singh MD: So I'm gonna challenge you a little bit because like I can think of one time I remember I.
• 14:29
  Sonia Singh MD: I think it was when I had just had my first son and I I think I was watching YouTube videos of newborn life, like people describing this is my schedule with my newborn.
• 14:37
  Sonia Singh MD: 'cause at that time, despite being 35 and a doctor, and I was still like, am I doing it right?
• 14:43
  Sonia Singh MD: When am I supposed to feed myself?
• 14:45
  Sonia Singh MD: When am I supposed to shower?
• 14:46
  Sonia Singh MD: When is the baby supposed to, I just, I needed to see someone doing it.
• 14:49
  Sonia Singh MD: And so I was watching a lot of these Newborn life videos and I, again, I wasn't seeking it out, but I remember being served one that was like.
• 14:57
  Sonia Singh MD: You know what I eat in a day is a mom of a newborn, and this woman was vegan, which I'm not vegan, but I remember watching that video and feeling kind of inspired by it because I was like, okay, this lady has all these other dietary restrictions that I don't even have.
• 15:13
  Sonia Singh MD: And she pulled it together.
• 15:15
  Sonia Singh MD: She had a very simple breakfast and then she went out and went to a bowl place for lunch, and then she ate half the bowl later in the day.
• 15:22
  Sonia Singh MD: And then she had a frozen thing for dinner.
• 15:24
  Sonia Singh MD: It was, I guess part of it was maybe the intent of that particular video was really just it's doable.
• 15:30
  Sonia Singh MD: If you, if you have a kind of a structure and a plan, rather than, she was not trying, the video was not trying to promote any particular health goal, but she was basically saying it's possible to even do this, with a newborn.
• 15:42
  Sonia Singh MD: I mean, I can see the flip side of that, which is like somebody watching that and still feeling like, well, she can do it.
• 15:47
  Sonia Singh MD: How come I can't do it?
• 15:48
  Sonia Singh MD: Or just feeling worse that somebody else was able to do it.
• 15:51
  Sonia Singh MD: But I do remember, I still remember watching that video and thinking okay, this is doable.
• 15:55
  Sonia Singh MD: Like I could do this.
• 15:56
  Sonia Singh MD: This is not as impossible as I'm feeling it is right now.
• 15:59
  Sonia Singh MD: So anyway, I can see how it can go both ways depending on what your internal mindset and feeling is in that moment.
• 16:05
  Sonia Singh MD: But.
• 16:06
  Sonia Singh MD: I feel like I have watched videos that have made me feel, I guess in an aspirational way of this thing is achievable and it, it's not as hard as I'm feeling like it is internally.
• 16:17
  Rebecca Berens MD: Yeah, and I think, there is definitely some value in that, and I think what you're describing is this is a replacement for.
• 16:26
  Rebecca Berens MD: The village that is gone.
• 16:28
  Rebecca Berens MD: Yeah.
• 16:28
  Rebecca Berens MD: You know, like we Yes, that's true.
• 16:30
  Rebecca Berens MD: You know it pre, maybe in the past you would've observed other people in your circle, your neighborhood, your village, whatever, who have had a newborn and watched how they did it, or.
• 16:42
  Rebecca Berens MD: Someone was bringing them lots of meals, and so it was easy for them to eat throughout the day.
• 16:46
  Rebecca Berens MD: And now we're so isolated and siloed and we've, we've lost the village.
• 16:50
  Rebecca Berens MD: And so you're like, what am I supposed to do?
• 16:51
  Rebecca Berens MD: Yes.
• 16:52
  Rebecca Berens MD: I've never seen this happen before.
• 16:54
  Rebecca Berens MD: Yes.
• 16:54
  Rebecca Berens MD: And so, yeah, it's sort of fulfilling a societal need that's been lost.
• 16:58
  Rebecca Berens MD: And so yeah, there's definitely potential benefit.
• 17:00
  Rebecca Berens MD: In that case.
• 17:01
  Rebecca Berens MD: And then I think there's also obviously lots of potential harms and it's, it's very variable person to person how that information is received and processed and used.
• 17:11
  Rebecca Berens MD: And then also What's aspirational for one person or inspirational for one person could inspire very disordered patterns in another person.
• 17:19
  Rebecca Berens MD: Yeah.
• 17:19
  Rebecca Berens MD: Or like you said, it could make you feel guilty that you can't do the same mm-hmm.
• 17:23
  Rebecca Berens MD: Thing that they're doing because in your circumstance, even though your circumstances are likely very different,'cause I imagine someone who has the wherewithal to film their entire day when they have a newborn has a lot of help because I cannot even fathom how I would set up a camera.
• 17:38
  Rebecca Berens MD: Like, I was just
• 17:39
  Sonia Singh MD: like, how is this lady even doing
• 17:41
  Rebecca Berens MD: this?
• 17:41
  Rebecca Berens MD: You know?
• 17:41
  Rebecca Berens MD: That's like a camera crew situation or something.
• 17:44
  Rebecca Berens MD: You have like multiple family members setting up cameras for you if you're filming yourself.
• 17:48
  Rebecca Berens MD: I mean, if you're not, you were getting a lot more sleep than I was.
• 17:52
  Sonia Singh MD: I think you're so right about that.
• 17:54
  Sonia Singh MD: How.
• 17:54
  Sonia Singh MD: It's probably that desire of mine that I was having was born out of not being able to observe other people.
• 18:00
  Sonia Singh MD: My baby was born in 2020.
• 18:01
  Sonia Singh MD: I did not have nearly the same urge to watch YouTube videos with as like a child, but in 2020, I literally was not seeing anyone doing anything.
• 18:09
  Sonia Singh MD: So I certainly was not.
• 18:10
  Sonia Singh MD: Able to witness another new mom and what they were what were they doing all day?
• 18:14
  Sonia Singh MD: I just, I could not wrap my head around what I was supposed to do all day with this baby.
• 18:18
  Sonia Singh MD: Yeah.
• 18:19
  Sonia Singh MD: I think you're a hundred percent right that we turn to these things for that sense of community and support and validation and guidance because.
• 18:27
  Sonia Singh MD: Sometimes we're not getting it anywhere else, so, yeah,
• 18:30
  Rebecca Berens MD: and I had my first baby pre pandemic and I remember that maternity leave being alone in my house all day every day.
• 18:37
  Rebecca Berens MD: And there weren't quite the same level of content in 2018 as rapidly developed after that.
• 18:43
  Rebecca Berens MD: But I was watching a lot of TV shows about people with newborns.
• 18:47
  Rebecca Berens MD: I can't remember what it was called.
• 18:49
  Rebecca Berens MD: There was one on Netflix that was very irreverent and working mom, but very validating working moms.
• 18:54
  Rebecca Berens MD: No, it wasn't, gosh, I can't remember what it was called, but you know, I think we do just need some external.
• 19:01
  Rebecca Berens MD: Validation or like visualization of what on earth is happening and we really just don't get that anymore.
• 19:06
  Rebecca Berens MD: Yeah.
• 19:07
  Rebecca Berens MD: And so yeah, I think there's, this potentially fills that role, but of course we wanna be cautious about is what we're observing actually true and useful and helpful.
• 19:16
  Rebecca Berens MD: And I think that's different person to person.
• 19:19
  Sonia Singh MD: Yeah.
• 19:19
  Sonia Singh MD: Yeah.
• 19:20
  Sonia Singh MD: Okay.
• 19:20
  Sonia Singh MD: So tell us a little bit more about the facts around what I eat in a day videos.
• 19:25
  Sonia Singh MD: I was surprised to hear that you found facts I didn't, it's amazing that this
• 19:28
  Rebecca Berens MD: has been studied.
• 19:29
  Rebecca Berens MD: I was fascinated at the existence of any study about what I eat in a day video, but there were many and I was quite shocked.
• 19:37
  Rebecca Berens MD: But also.
• 19:38
  Rebecca Berens MD: I'm glad because this is the kind of thing that does need to, I mean, this is such a huge part of our lives now.
• 19:42
  Rebecca Berens MD: We should be studying the impact of it.
• 19:44
  Rebecca Berens MD: So the fact, so nutrition related content on social media is often inaccurate and associated with conflicts of interest.
• 19:49
  Rebecca Berens MD: This should come as no surprise to anyone.
• 19:52
  Rebecca Berens MD: There was a study that evaluated TikTok content, including what I eat in a day videos.
• 19:58
  Rebecca Berens MD: And it was identifying the topics, the types of creators, assessing the accuracy and quality of the content using evidence-based frameworks and in analyzing engagement metrics such as likes, comments, shares.
• 20:09
  Rebecca Berens MD: So most common creators, no surprise, health and wellness influencers and fitness creators.
• 20:13
  Rebecca Berens MD: There were also, there was a lot of recipes and there was a lot of weight loss specific content.
• 20:19
  Rebecca Berens MD: Mm-hmm.
• 20:20
  Rebecca Berens MD: So when they evaluated these posts, 82% of the applicable posts lacked transparent ad advertising disclaimers.
• 20:26
  Rebecca Berens MD: 77% failed to disclose conflicts of interest.
• 20:30
  Rebecca Berens MD: 63% promoted stereotypes.
• 20:32
  Rebecca Berens MD: 55% did not provide evidence-based information.
• 20:35
  Rebecca Berens MD: 75% lacked balanced and accurate content, and 90% fail to point out the risks and benefits of the Advice presented.
• 20:41
  Rebecca Berens MD: So as total 36% of posts were considered completely accurate, 24%, mostly inaccurate, and 18% completely inaccurate.
• 20:50
  Rebecca Berens MD: And there was no statistical significance between the level of accuracy and the engagement metrics, so, mm-hmm.
• 20:55
  Rebecca Berens MD: Meaning.
• 20:57
  Rebecca Berens MD: The inaccurate stuff was still shared and promoted just as much as accurate stuff.
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: Um,
• 21:02
  Rebecca Berens MD: so yeah, this was a really interesting study that, was no surprise to me, certainly, but I think it's important for a person to be aware of when they're consuming.
• 21:10
  Rebecca Berens MD: This kind of content.
• 21:11
  Sonia Singh MD: I think we touched upon this study in one of our initial episodes on just social media and how it affects our wellness generally.
• 21:17
  Sonia Singh MD: But something that really has struck me in the past few months mostly is you know, there's been all this discussion about Oh, the food pyramid, the food pyramid was so bad for us and it gave us these crazy, ideas about what we should be eating, you know?
• 21:29
  Sonia Singh MD: And actually the food pyramid that everyone always hates on has been changed a long time ago.
• 21:33
  Sonia Singh MD: So that, that, that food pyramid was retired a very long time ago.
• 21:37
  Sonia Singh MD: But anyway, I actually don't think, as a doctor, I think it, like the first thing that strikes me is I'm like, I don't know how many Americans are really guiding their food decisions based on whatever the FDA said was the food pyramid or what the current guidelines say, or the MyPlate recommendations.
• 21:52
  Sonia Singh MD: I actually think today, in today's current day and age, social media is driving what people think is the ideal what they should be eating.
• 21:58
  Sonia Singh MD: They're not consulting the FDA website.
• 22:01
  Sonia Singh MD: They're not coming and asking us most of the time.
• 22:04
  Sonia Singh MD: And so, like you said, I think it's just so important that we are just as we should make sure that the recommendations that come out, at a national level and by big societies and everything are, are studied and well-informed and evidence-based.
• 22:16
  Sonia Singh MD: The reality is most people are getting that guidance from social media.
• 22:20
  Sonia Singh MD: So we better be studying it and alerting people that it, it is or is not accurate or fact checking it in some way.
• 22:26
  Sonia Singh MD: So yeah, I mean I'm just so glad that people are studying it because it should be scrutinized just as much as the, official guidelines we follow.
• 22:34
  Rebecca Berens MD: Oh, absolutely.
• 22:35
  Rebecca Berens MD: Yeah.
• 22:36
  Rebecca Berens MD: And I think, for the average person, like I think it's unrealistic to believe that we could ever control.
• 22:43
  Rebecca Berens MD: That the information that is posted being accurate, and I don't think that would be well received.
• 22:48
  Rebecca Berens MD: There would be censorship concerns about that.
• 22:49
  Rebecca Berens MD: Right.
• 22:50
  Rebecca Berens MD: And at some point, like people can share what they do.
• 22:52
  Rebecca Berens MD: That's.
• 22:53
  Rebecca Berens MD: Yeah, what social media is for.
• 22:54
  Rebecca Berens MD: It would be, it would be an overstep to police people sharing their day-to-day lives.
• 22:59
  Rebecca Berens MD: But also I think it's just important for, as a consumer of information, having that sort of critical eye.
• 23:04
  Rebecca Berens MD: Okay, I saw this.
• 23:05
  Rebecca Berens MD: Let me look more into this.
• 23:06
  Rebecca Berens MD: Let me learn more about this.
• 23:07
  Rebecca Berens MD: What does the evidence say?
• 23:09
  Rebecca Berens MD: Because I think we, we do, I think sometimes.
• 23:12
  Rebecca Berens MD: Put too much stock in what people we know and trust, say, without considering all of the risks and benefits and the other evidence.
• 23:21
  Rebecca Berens MD: And it's important to have trusted source of, of information, but it's also important to know that trust does not equate to evidence.
• 23:29
  Rebecca Berens MD: And having, a variety of sources that you're looking at that you can critically examine while you're making a decision.
• 23:35
  Sonia Singh MD: I also think just the scope of what you mentioned, like just how many posts there are and then the extremely high percentage of them that are inaccurate in some way or biased or.
• 23:44
  Sonia Singh MD: The risks, I think there's this false sense of oh yeah, this seems true.
• 23:48
  Sonia Singh MD: 'cause you're following three different people that are promoting the same product or saying that they did a certain thing and it worked for them.
• 23:55
  Sonia Singh MD: So to a lot of people, I think that feels like, okay, yeah, that's fact checked.
• 23:58
  Sonia Singh MD: It's not one random person is saying it and I'm believing it.
• 24:01
  Sonia Singh MD: Or even going to Google, Google Gemini, AI is pulling from what is on the internet, and so it's pulling from the same massive amount of.
• 24:09
  Sonia Singh MD: Questionable information, and so oftentimes that answer will also just validate what is most prevalent, in a lot of these platforms.
• 24:17
  Sonia Singh MD: So it's hard, it's really hard to go out and fact check, on your own, yeah.
• 24:22
  Rebecca Berens MD: Yeah.
• 24:22
  Rebecca Berens MD: And it's, it's not reasonable to expect that everyone has the resources to be able to even find those kind of, yeah.
• 24:29
  Rebecca Berens MD: Information.
• 24:29
  Rebecca Berens MD: But I think it's just important for people to know, okay, what I'm seeing.
• 24:32
  Rebecca Berens MD: May or may not be true.
• 24:34
  Rebecca Berens MD: Yeah.
• 24:34
  Rebecca Berens MD: And maybe take that to a professional who does have the resources to help you, guide you on that by consulting with evidence and, and all of that.
• 24:44
  Rebecca Berens MD: So I think it's, it's just a, it is just consumer awareness, yeah.
• 24:48
  Rebecca Berens MD: So the next study that I found that I found particularly interesting, so there, there was actually evidence that watching what I eat in a day video, specifically increased body image, preoccupation and urges to engage in eating disorder behaviors, including binge eating, vomiting and induced vomiting, over exercise restriction, all of that.
• 25:06
  Rebecca Berens MD: So this was an appetite July, 2025.
• 25:08
  Rebecca Berens MD: Does watching short form what I eat in a day.
• 25:10
  Rebecca Berens MD: Videos impact eating disorder, cognitions and urges to engage in eating disorder behaviors, an experimental investigation of TikTok.
• 25:17
  Rebecca Berens MD: So this was a study of college students.
• 25:20
  Rebecca Berens MD: There is 481.
• 25:21
  Rebecca Berens MD: 72% were women, 68% were white.
• 25:23
  Rebecca Berens MD: So not a totally representative sample necessarily of the general population.
• 25:27
  Rebecca Berens MD: But, they were randomly assigned to view lifestyle eating only or non-ED, non-ED related control, which were, hashtag art short form videos from TikTok for six minutes and before and after they rated their weight and shape preoccupation and urges to binge eat, vomit and exercise.
• 25:45
  Rebecca Berens MD: And they did, they analyzed this information and revealed significant interactions by time and condition.
• 25:52
  Rebecca Berens MD: So type of video and, type of behavior for weight and shape, preoccupation and eating disorder, behavior urges.
• 25:58
  Rebecca Berens MD: So the lifestyle video had an increase in weight and shape preoccupation and exercise.
• 26:04
  Rebecca Berens MD: The eating only ones had an increase in weight and shape, preoccupation and urges to binge eat.
• 26:09
  Rebecca Berens MD: Vomit and exercise and the control condition, which was the art videos, had a decreased urge to binge eat in exercise, but no change in weight, shape, preoccupation or urge to vomit.
• 26:18
  Rebecca Berens MD: So, and the effects related to weight and shape preoccupation for lifestyle were stronger for women.
• 26:23
  Rebecca Berens MD: So basically what we're seeing is these lifestyle videos, which, include not just eating, but also exercise and other behaviors.
• 26:29
  Rebecca Berens MD: And the eating only ones both had an influence on sort of eating disorder behaviors.
• 26:34
  Rebecca Berens MD: Whereas the art videos.
• 26:36
  Rebecca Berens MD: They said may be protective against eating disorder risk or just may have no yeah, impact in general, but, but I think, yeah, obviously this is just one study and this is a super interesting study that I think would be.
• 26:47
  Rebecca Berens MD: Really interesting to continue to look at.
• 26:51
  Rebecca Berens MD: There's some ethical concerns, of exposing people to a lot of this event to study it, but I guess people are getting exposed already.
• 26:58
  Rebecca Berens MD: But I think it's further research would be really useful to see how strong this is and if there's any sort of predictive value of which kind of person is more likely to experience this.
• 27:07
  Rebecca Berens MD: It would just inform, parents who are advocating for their adolescent children, for example, using social media and then also for, people themselves to be aware of what my risk might be if I'm consuming this kind of content.
• 27:20
  Sonia Singh MD: Yeah, but this was just at the study population was just college students, like not necessarily people with any history of disordered eating at basic.
• 27:27
  Sonia Singh MD: Correct.
• 27:28
  Sonia Singh MD: So that's really fascinating because to me what that means is for somebody with any history of disordered eating or who already tends towards some of those types of behaviors or thoughts This effect is probably so much more pronounced, so I think just having that awareness.
• 27:42
  Sonia Singh MD: When I think about that, that feels like something pediatricians and and PCPs, should be really alerting anyone to who's in that category because this is a very clear risk factor for, for worsening or perpetuating those behaviors.
• 27:57
  Sonia Singh MD: But yeah, that's a pretty impressive finding.
• 28:00
  Rebecca Berens MD: Yeah.
• 28:00
  Rebecca Berens MD: And I think, as you said, like it's concerning.
• 28:02
  Rebecca Berens MD: Yeah.
• 28:03
  Rebecca Berens MD: And I think less so now, but certainly in the past there was this assumption that Content is neutral.
• 28:09
  Rebecca Berens MD: You're consuming content, but you're in control of it.
• 28:11
  Rebecca Berens MD: You, you are not, you can choose whether or not to be influenced by it, or to change your behaviors based on content you saw.
• 28:18
  Rebecca Berens MD: Right.
• 28:19
  Rebecca Berens MD: But I think what this also tells me is that it might not be as much in your control as you think it is.
• 28:23
  Rebecca Berens MD: Mm-hmm.
• 28:24
  Rebecca Berens MD: And I think, I've, I've definitely heard parents of adolescents.
• 28:28
  Rebecca Berens MD: I can't even imagine the struggle that they're under.
• 28:30
  Rebecca Berens MD: And we will rapidly be in this position of Kids with exposure to smartphones on social media.
• 28:35
  Rebecca Berens MD: Even if you do not give them a phone and you do not allow them to see social media, they're going to be exposed to it through peers.
• 28:40
  Rebecca Berens MD: Yeah.
• 28:41
  Rebecca Berens MD: And I think there's increasing recognition from parents that it's a problem, but I think there's still a lot of parents that maybe are not.
• 28:47
  Rebecca Berens MD: As aware of how significant some of these problems could be and how quickly it could have, I mean, this was six minutes.
• 28:55
  Sonia Singh MD: It, it really is impressive.
• 28:56
  Sonia Singh MD: The intervention and like what they found.
• 28:58
  Sonia Singh MD: But I think the other big difference, which you pointed to was like.
• 29:01
  Sonia Singh MD: It feels like you're not choosing it.
• 29:03
  Sonia Singh MD: If you're just on social media, not looking for it, it comes up so it's so different than, in the nineties when you and I might have gone somewhere and bought a Cosmo magazine, like you could just be innocently looking at sewing videos and then you, you get served something tangentially related and then suddenly you're in.
• 29:20
  Sonia Singh MD: And so, I think, like you said, there's this illusion that we have control or that it's fine.
• 29:24
  Sonia Singh MD: I'm not interested, I'm not gonna be looking at that stuff, you know?
• 29:27
  Sonia Singh MD: And especially with a kid, the algorithms have this amazing ability to figure out what you're terrified of and what you're anxious about, or insecure and bringing it up, you know?
• 29:36
  Sonia Singh MD: So, yeah, I think that's, it's terrifying.
• 29:41
  Rebecca Berens MD: So the next study I wanna talk about was about muck bang, which again, this was a new term for me and I really hope I'm not mispronouncing that.
• 29:48
  Rebecca Berens MD: But this was a qualitative content analysis of YouTube comments and Reddit posts of people who have viewed muck bang videos.
• 29:57
  Rebecca Berens MD: So the, and again, muck bang is the, videos of like people eating.
• 30:01
  Rebecca Berens MD: Often large amounts of food and often like messy food.
• 30:04
  Rebecca Berens MD: That makes a lot of sound'cause it's designed for a lot of sensory stimulation.
• 30:08
  Rebecca Berens MD: And again, this is just a qualitative analysis of comments.
• 30:10
  Rebecca Berens MD: So this is in no way like a.
• 30:13
  Rebecca Berens MD: Controlled study.
• 30:14
  Rebecca Berens MD: Yeah.
• 30:15
  Rebecca Berens MD: But it's still interesting to see what are the responses to this sort of content.
• 30:19
  Rebecca Berens MD: And it indicated that viewers of Muck bang videos reported restrictive eating, loss of control around eating and guilt around eating.
• 30:27
  Rebecca Berens MD: And I thought this was super interesting because this was not assessed in this study, but for me it could go either way.
• 30:32
  Rebecca Berens MD: Is that as a result of the content or are you choosing that content because you already have these feelings and this is one of the ways that you're working that out?
• 30:42
  Rebecca Berens MD: Yeah, because certainly we know, like patients with anorexia, for example, one of the symptoms they will experience with star ation is an increased preoccupation around food.
• 30:50
  Rebecca Berens MD: So a lot of people will take up cooking or baking and making food for other people, but then not.
• 30:54
  Rebecca Berens MD: Eating any of it.
• 30:55
  Rebecca Berens MD: 'cause they wanna be around food, they're just not taking it in.
• 30:58
  Rebecca Berens MD: Mm-hmm.
• 30:58
  Rebecca Berens MD: And so this is sort of a way of acting out that symptom in the privacy of your own home.
• 31:02
  Rebecca Berens MD: Mm-hmm.
• 31:02
  Rebecca Berens MD: But then from, from the flip side, it could also be triggering some of those feelings.
• 31:07
  Rebecca Berens MD: You know, this was, that was really not assessed with this study, but certainly some of the other studies indicated that, watching a lot of food related content maybe had an effect on eating behavior.
• 31:15
  Rebecca Berens MD: So it's possible it could go both ways.
• 31:17
  Rebecca Berens MD: Mm-hmm.
• 31:18
  Rebecca Berens MD: But I think that's something that.
• 31:19
  Rebecca Berens MD: Could definitely be studied in more detail and would be interesting to see what the outcomes are, if it's, if this is a cause effect or both kind of situation.
• 31:27
  Rebecca Berens MD: Right, right.
• 31:28
  Sonia Singh MD: Yeah.
• 31:28
  Sonia Singh MD: So in that case, you'd have to do something like the first study where you just get a more general population and expose them to it and see what happens.
• 31:35
  Sonia Singh MD: Yeah.
• 31:36
  Sonia Singh MD: Yeah.
• 31:36
  Sonia Singh MD: Interesting.
• 31:37
  Sonia Singh MD: For sure.
• 31:38
  Rebecca Berens MD: And then the last thing I wanted to touch on here is, which I think is important, especially as it comes to parents who are working on addressing their kids' use of social media, is the type of content had more impact than the duration of social media usage.
• 31:53
  Rebecca Berens MD: Mm-hmm.
• 31:53
  Rebecca Berens MD: So this was a study from eating eating behaviors in 2023.
• 31:56
  Rebecca Berens MD: The impact of social media use on body image and disordered eating behaviors.
• 31:59
  Rebecca Berens MD: Content matters more than duration of exposure because I think the way that I hear a lot of people talking about handling.
• 32:06
  Rebecca Berens MD: Social media with their kids is limiting screen time.
• 32:10
  Rebecca Berens MD: They're like, oh yeah, they use it, but they only can use it for 30 minutes.
• 32:13
  Rebecca Berens MD: Or, or they only have it while we're awake and at bedtime it comes into my room, but.
• 32:19
  Rebecca Berens MD: It doesn't maybe matter the amount of time they spend on it, it matters more what the content is.
• 32:23
  Rebecca Berens MD: So this survey was two demographically diverse undergraduate student cohorts in 2015 and 2022 to compare patterns in social media use, body image and disordered eating behaviors between samples.
• 32:33
  Rebecca Berens MD: So this was also pre and during pandemic.
• 32:37
  Rebecca Berens MD: Which is also an interesting, combination of factors to assess.
• 32:40
  Rebecca Berens MD: 'cause that was maybe not planned on in 2015.
• 32:43
  Rebecca Berens MD: But, but participants in 2022 reported grad greater body image disturbances, more frequent vomiting and laxative use, more time spent on a greater number of social media accounts and with significantly greater use of image-based platforms.
• 32:55
  Rebecca Berens MD: So Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube.
• 32:57
  Rebecca Berens MD: So of course, in 2015, Instagram was out, but it was still pretty.
• 33:03
  Rebecca Berens MD: Limited, I think it was not as widely used as now.
• 33:05
  Rebecca Berens MD: And now of course we have TikTok and we have a lot more image-based things being used.
• 33:09
  Rebecca Berens MD: Mm-hmm.
• 33:10
  Rebecca Berens MD: But exposure to weight loss content specifically was associated with lower body image appreciation, greater fears of negative appearance, valuation, and more frequent binge eating.
• 33:18
  Rebecca Berens MD: And this was not actually reduced by exposure to bo body positivity or body neutrality content.
• 33:24
  Rebecca Berens MD: So even having that.
• 33:26
  Rebecca Berens MD: More neutral or positive content did not have any protective effect.
• 33:30
  Rebecca Berens MD: So I thought that was really interesting and I think there's this perception that if we produce more body positive or neutral content, we can drown out some of the effects of the more negative content.
• 33:40
  Rebecca Berens MD: Mm-hmm.
• 33:40
  Rebecca Berens MD: And that may not be the case, and maybe we just need to not be doing any of it.
• 33:44
  Rebecca Berens MD: But of course that diet related content's gonna be there.
• 33:47
  Rebecca Berens MD: So it's, it's a hard, it's a hard balance.
• 33:50
  Sonia Singh MD: So I guess I still come back to though like a chicken or the egg thing, because in this, since this is just observation, right?
• 33:57
  Sonia Singh MD: So they're not controlling the content that these people are seeing.
• 34:00
  Sonia Singh MD: They're seeing whatever is getting served to them, right?
• 34:02
  Sonia Singh MD: So if you already have.
• 34:05
  Sonia Singh MD: Your own issues with your body image and concerns about food and around food, then you're going to be consuming more of that content and more likely to have those behaviors.
• 34:14
  Sonia Singh MD: So this one is not quite as shocking and scary to me as the first one.
• 34:18
  Sonia Singh MD: Obviously still shocking and scary, but a little bit less so because again, it's just social media is so good at identifying those things inside of you, even if you are not acting upon them.
• 34:29
  Sonia Singh MD: But maybe this is suggesting that it may make you more likely to act upon them if you're consuming a lot of that content.
• 34:36
  Rebecca Berens MD: Yeah, absolutely.
• 34:36
  Rebecca Berens MD: And I think that the thing for me was that it's not so time dependent, right?
• 34:40
  Rebecca Berens MD: Mm-hmm.
• 34:40
  Rebecca Berens MD: That also, the body positive or neutral content doesn't protect you.
• 34:44
  Rebecca Berens MD: Like even though it's there.
• 34:46
  Rebecca Berens MD: Yeah.
• 34:46
  Rebecca Berens MD: And we would, you know, I think a lot of us sort of intuitively think oh, if we just drown it out with more positive content, it will counteract some of this.
• 34:53
  Rebecca Berens MD: But it doesn't, at least in this study, it didn't appear to
• 34:56
  Speaker 3: have that effect.
• 34:57
  Rebecca Berens MD: Yeah.
• 34:57
  Rebecca Berens MD: And maybe that's something that could be studied in more detail and, and more specifically targeted maybe people who are already struggling with this thing, these sorts of things, for example, could be.
• 35:06
  Rebecca Berens MD: Proactively only shown that content and the other stuff removed.
• 35:09
  Rebecca Berens MD: In some way.
• 35:10
  Rebecca Berens MD: And would that maybe be beneficial?
• 35:12
  Rebecca Berens MD: We don't know.
• 35:13
  Rebecca Berens MD: But I think it's just interesting information to, to have in the back of our mind.
• 35:17
  Rebecca Berens MD: And like, and like you said, I think it's just more of a discussion point, particularly with parents about adolescents who are struggling with these conversations with their kids about social media use and phones and all of that.
• 35:28
  Rebecca Berens MD: This is a thing that could maybe be, discussed as a family and brought up and more directly head on.
• 35:35
  Rebecca Berens MD: Yeah.
• 35:35
  Rebecca Berens MD: In the forefront of everyone's mind.
• 35:36
  Rebecca Berens MD: We're not in control of it, of all of it, but we can be in control of at least some of it and have some open conversations about it to maybe keep the effects as limited as possible.
• 35:47
  Sonia Singh MD: Yeah, no, I, I hear your point about the time, and I think that's, I think you're right that a lot of people think okay, well they're, they're just on it so little, they just have so little time on it and, I'm observing them and everything.
• 35:58
  Sonia Singh MD: I have had the experience myself of trying to pull back from Facebook and Instagram for the last few months and I.
• 36:04
  Sonia Singh MD: I'll tell you, sometimes I'll log in'cause I'll get a notification and I'll just do one minute only.
• 36:09
  Sonia Singh MD: But the very top of the feed is always something really juicy.
• 36:12
  Sonia Singh MD: It's something really compelling to me.
• 36:14
  Sonia Singh MD: And the things that I don't want to see that I see all the time are bad things happening to children or, missed diagnoses or like those are my fears.
• 36:24
  Sonia Singh MD: Inevitably the top post on the feed is always one of those two things.
• 36:28
  Sonia Singh MD: 'cause it knows what will draw me in, yeah.
• 36:30
  Sonia Singh MD: And so I can imagine if you're a 13-year-old and your mom's okay, you get 10 minutes to look at this, you know, the image can be done like very quickly.
• 36:38
  Sonia Singh MD: You know, that could
• 36:39
  Rebecca Berens MD: be a heavy 10
• 36:39
  Sonia Singh MD: minutes doesn't take long.
• 36:41
  Sonia Singh MD: Yeah.
• 36:42
  Sonia Singh MD: Yeah.
• 36:42
  Sonia Singh MD: So, yeah, that's a, that's an important point.
• 36:45
  Sonia Singh MD: Okay.
• 36:46
  Sonia Singh MD: I guess one last thing.
• 36:49
  Sonia Singh MD: That I wanted to challenge you on or ask you about your opinion on is now reading this and knowing that even the body positivity content does not seem to mitigate some of these effects.
• 37:00
  Sonia Singh MD: I guess as a some part-time content creator myself, I do wonder sometimes, is there any way to share.
• 37:08
  Sonia Singh MD: What you are eating.
• 37:09
  Sonia Singh MD: Maybe not saying what I eat in a day, but sharing food related information or even what I eat in a day, in a way that does not perpetuate a lot of these, more negative behaviors and, like adverse effects on people's wellbeing.
• 37:25
  Rebecca Berens MD: Yeah.
• 37:25
  Rebecca Berens MD: We kind of started talking about this right before we started recording this and I think.
• 37:29
  Rebecca Berens MD: We don't know really.
• 37:30
  Rebecca Berens MD: I mean, Mike, after doing all this, I'm like, maybe not, but I think like, you know, I think like you said it's so person dependent how an individual is going to receive information and how that might impact them individually.
• 37:42
  Rebecca Berens MD: But what I will say is the content that my husband receives around food on his feeds is very different than the content that I receive around food on my feeds.
• 37:52
  Rebecca Berens MD: And I find the content that he receives generally.
• 37:56
  Rebecca Berens MD: Less problematic, at least in my view, compared to what I receive.
• 38:00
  Rebecca Berens MD: And damage could potentially still be done in a person who's particularly predisposed, but I would say more of his content is very cooking focused.
• 38:08
  Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
• 38:08
  Speaker 3: So,
• 38:08
  Rebecca Berens MD: He'll get a lot of videos'cause he's interested in cooking, so this is why he gets served up this stuff.
• 38:13
  Rebecca Berens MD: He gets a lot of videos specifically showing, demonstrating the steps of preparing a meal.
• 38:18
  Rebecca Berens MD: Yeah.
• 38:18
  Rebecca Berens MD: Right.
• 38:18
  Rebecca Berens MD: So it's like this is how you make this and there's not very much discussion of the health of that meal, the nutrient content.
• 38:25
  Rebecca Berens MD: Some of the meals are very balanced, some of them are less so, but it's more so this is a delicious meal that you can make in five or 10 minutes and then it shows you all the steps of doing it.
• 38:35
  Rebecca Berens MD: And I have to think that.
• 38:37
  Rebecca Berens MD: There's less risk for harm in that sort of situation compared to a woman who's skinny in athleisure and gracefully doing yoga in the background while she talks you through all the meals she made that day.
• 38:49
  Rebecca Berens MD: It just seems like it has to be different.
• 38:52
  Rebecca Berens MD: And this, the latter is all that I ever see or I did when I, when I was using.
• 38:56
  Rebecca Berens MD: I've actually, I've, like you said, I've also stopped using a lot of these platforms, but I think, the type of content is very different in the way that it's targeted, and I do think there's a way to do it, but I think it matters how you're talking about it and the sort of imagery that you're using.
• 39:09
  Rebecca Berens MD: Mm-hmm.
• 39:10
  Rebecca Berens MD: And now obviously we talked about muck bang a little bit, Some of his maybe err more towards the side of muck bang, which may have some of its own effects that need further study.
• 39:17
  Rebecca Berens MD: But again, there, there's less eating and there's more cooking.
• 39:20
  Rebecca Berens MD: There's maybe a couple of frames at the end where they show, like taking a bite of something, but it's not the bulk of the video, it's the bulk of the video is the actual preparation steps.
• 39:28
  Rebecca Berens MD: So it seems more educational to me of this is a way to develop your interest in cooking and learn a new skill than it is about the food.
• 39:35
  Sonia Singh MD: Mm-hmm.
• 39:36
  Sonia Singh MD: Yeah, and maybe there's also a difference in individual, it sounds like the goal of a lot of those posts is a particular recipe or a particular meal, or how to do a certain thing, whereas when you do this how I eat in a day thing, there's all these underlying assumptions of This is how I eat every day.
• 39:51
  Sonia Singh MD: This is how, it kind of removes this idea of well, yeah, you might this eat this on one day, but tomorrow could be totally different.
• 39:58
  Sonia Singh MD: And you and I both know this as clinicians who take, you know, dietary intakes and do food diaries and things like that.
• 40:03
  Sonia Singh MD: It's like oftentimes you'll ask a patient, well, tell me about what you eat in a typical day.
• 40:07
  Sonia Singh MD: And it's so hard.
• 40:08
  Sonia Singh MD: That's such a hard question to answer because there's so much variability for the vast majority of people like.
• 40:13
  Sonia Singh MD: As part of my, you know, I did a Master's in Nutrition and for several weeks we had to keep our own food diaries as part of the program.
• 40:20
  Sonia Singh MD: And I was amazed at, just how variable things were for me from day to day thinking, even though I think oh, I don't, it doesn't vary that much, but I think it's, it's so hard to really pin down.
• 40:31
  Sonia Singh MD: What eating in real life is actually like.
• 40:34
  Sonia Singh MD: And just in the same way, you wouldn't record a house tour.
• 40:37
  Sonia Singh MD: If your house is a to, you're gonna, you're gonna straighten the pillow and stuff if you're recording.
• 40:41
  Sonia Singh MD: So if you're recording what I eat in the day, you're not gonna be like, and then I ate this leftover bag of pirate's booty that I found in my backseat.
• 40:49
  Sonia Singh MD: And then I, grabbed a pastry in the office, break room.
• 40:52
  Sonia Singh MD: It's very unlikely that it's really going to be.
• 40:56
  Sonia Singh MD: Reflective of reality, when it's that amount of time as opposed to I made this recipe, you know?
• 41:02
  Sonia Singh MD: Yeah.
• 41:03
  Rebecca Berens MD: And what is it the Hawthorne effect of, the effect, like when you're taking that food dire example Yeah.
• 41:07
  Rebecca Berens MD: For, for, your master's in nutrition.
• 41:09
  Rebecca Berens MD: Does it affect what you do because you know, you have to write it down.
• 41:13
  Rebecca Berens MD: I think that's, I think it's only human right?
• 41:16
  Rebecca Berens MD: You know, so, I think even just the fact that I think I've, I've even seen some people talking about using this as accountability.
• 41:22
  Rebecca Berens MD: I'm trying to follow a certain plan and so I'm gonna post this every day for accountability because I know I will do it a certain way if I have to share it with people.
• 41:29
  Rebecca Berens MD: Mm-hmm.
• 41:30
  Rebecca Berens MD: There is just, even the act of documenting something changes our action
• 41:35
  Speaker 3: behavior.
• 41:35
  Rebecca Berens MD: Yeah.
• 41:35
  Rebecca Berens MD: So it's sort of a two-way street, but I think it's really, it's, it's just a, a very interesting topic and conversation in general, and I think.
• 41:43
  Rebecca Berens MD: For me, researching this episode, I, I just was like, there's so much more to think about this with this than I act, than I thought there was.
• 41:50
  Rebecca Berens MD: And it's now something that I very intentionally will bring up if I have a concern about someone, what kind of content are you seeing on social media about this?
• 42:01
  Rebecca Berens MD: Particularly if I know someone has started to follow like a really.
• 42:04
  Rebecca Berens MD: Rigid diet, and kind of talking about that influence and I think people really appreciate having the space to explore that and realizing the effect it might be having.
• 42:12
  Sonia Singh MD: Yeah.
• 42:13
  Sonia Singh MD: I'm so glad we're having this conversation and I hope this conversation is shared widely among, providers who are hearing those things from people.
• 42:20
  Sonia Singh MD: And then also just the general, I.
• 42:22
  Sonia Singh MD: I feel like I just from this conversation am going to be more aware of when I'm being, served that content and how it's making me feel.
• 42:29
  Sonia Singh MD: And I don't think I had given it that much thought before.
• 42:32
  Sonia Singh MD: So, thank you.
• 42:34
  Sonia Singh MD: Well, so what do you think we can take from this kind of, as doctors and humans, what are some of the take home messages from this conversation?
• 42:41
  Rebecca Berens MD: Yeah.
• 42:41
  Rebecca Berens MD: So I think the big take homes one like this, content has risks.
• 42:44
  Rebecca Berens MD: There are actual risks.
• 42:45
  Rebecca Berens MD: It is not a harmless, neutral intervention.
• 42:48
  Rebecca Berens MD: Yeah.
• 42:48
  Rebecca Berens MD: And we should think of it that way.
• 42:49
  Rebecca Berens MD: We should think of it as an intervention.
• 42:51
  Rebecca Berens MD: Two, we need to have that intentional check-in, like we're talking about the ref, the reflection of how our content might be affecting us.
• 42:57
  Rebecca Berens MD: If there's an anxiety that we're struggling with, like you said, you have those things that are fears for you.
• 43:02
  Rebecca Berens MD: Checking in with yourself, is this content that I'm experiencing contributing to this?
• 43:05
  Rebecca Berens MD: And how can I maybe, change the way that I'm consuming content or whether I'm consuming this content at all to to help myself feel better.
• 43:13
  Rebecca Berens MD: And recognizing that you're not as in as much control as you think you are.
• 43:16
  Rebecca Berens MD: The algorithm is controlling a lot more than you are, and as much as we don't wanna believe that trying to take whatever steps you can control to, to limit your exposure to things that are not helpful to you.
• 43:28
  Rebecca Berens MD: Yeah.
• 43:29
  Rebecca Berens MD: Because if we understand those risks and we understand the lack of control we have in some capacities, we can better make better decisions about our social media usage, the content we're consuming and how to protect ourselves.
• 43:42
  Sonia Singh MD: I just had an idea.
• 43:43
  Sonia Singh MD: I wonder if because the current way you might try to reduce this exposure to this content and stay on social media would be when you see something pop up and you're like, not interested in this, not interested in this.
• 43:54
  Sonia Singh MD: And I tried to do that for a long time where I would just be like, Ooh.
• 43:57
  Sonia Singh MD: Scary story about a man who, had abdominal pain and died the next day.
• 44:01
  Sonia Singh MD: I don't wanna see this, but.
• 44:02
  Sonia Singh MD: It's just so prolific and so good at it.
• 44:05
  Sonia Singh MD: It will just keep coming up with variations that you have not said that you don't wanna see yet, so I almost wonder if at some point, based on the research that, clearly is accumulating, there will be some ability to set guardrails for yourself.
• 44:19
  Sonia Singh MD: What if you could tell Facebook, look, I have a history of disordered eating.
• 44:22
  Sonia Singh MD: I don't wanna see content of these types, and what if it could filter them for you?
• 44:27
  Sonia Singh MD: No incentive for them to do that.
• 44:29
  Sonia Singh MD: But just from a public health perspective, I just feel like that kind of, those types of guardrails are going to be necessary for people to continue safely using these platforms.
• 44:39
  Sonia Singh MD: Because I really think currently with the current situation, your only choice is to leave it, which we have both kind of clo come close to that conclusion?
• 44:46
  Sonia Singh MD: I think independently.
• 44:48
  Rebecca Berens MD: Yeah.
• 44:48
  Rebecca Berens MD: I think there are some filters that can be put on.
• 44:51
  Rebecca Berens MD: I actually, I was thinking, oh, maybe I should look and then I'm like, I don't have it to look.
• 44:54
  Rebecca Berens MD: Yeah, we
• 44:55
  Sonia Singh MD: deleted it from our phone.
• 44:56
  Sonia Singh MD: Yeah, I've deleted it and
• 44:58
  Rebecca Berens MD: I, I have my brick on so I can't redownload it.
• 45:00
  Rebecca Berens MD: So, I think, I think what I've heard from some people that they have found effective is actively searching for things you do wanna see.
• 45:10
  Rebecca Berens MD: Because the more you engage with the things you do wanna see, the more of that it will show you.
• 45:14
  Rebecca Berens MD: Mm.
• 45:14
  Rebecca Berens MD: And the less of those other things.
• 45:16
  Rebecca Berens MD: And I think the other thing is, and this requires a bit more, brain power and strength maybe, is when something like that does pop up to just close the app.
• 45:24
  Rebecca Berens MD: 'Cause it doesn't, like when you close the app, it wants you to stay on the app, right?
• 45:27
  Rebecca Berens MD: Yes.
• 45:28
  Rebecca Berens MD: So spend a lot of time looking at the content that you do wanna see, and if you see something you don't want, just close the app.
• 45:34
  Rebecca Berens MD: I think that gives maybe the algorithm some more negative feedback, but I have definitely heard from people who have said, I've very consciously have, Been searching for the things I wanna see.
• 45:42
  Rebecca Berens MD: And it's, it's gradually shifting now in that way.
• 45:46
  Rebecca Berens MD: The other thing is, in that one study there was that sort of potential protective effect of hashtag art.
• 45:52
  Rebecca Berens MD: And I think that's maybe.
• 45:53
  Rebecca Berens MD: Things that are, inspiring to us in ways that have nothing to do with food or body or lifestyle.
• 46:00
  Rebecca Berens MD: Yeah.
• 46:00
  Rebecca Berens MD: Like art, like music, all of those other humanities.
• 46:03
  Rebecca Berens MD: Mm-hmm.
• 46:03
  Rebecca Berens MD: I think they're called humanities for a reason.
• 46:05
  Rebecca Berens MD: Right?
• 46:05
  Rebecca Berens MD: Like they're what makes us human.
• 46:07
  Rebecca Berens MD: It could, maybe activate our brain in a different way that might give us a different response.
• 46:11
  Rebecca Berens MD: And so I think that's one thing that people could consider doing if they want to remain on social media and wanna try to change their algorithm.
• 46:18
  Sonia Singh MD: Oh my gosh.
• 46:19
  Sonia Singh MD: It's like parenting, you know?
• 46:20
  Sonia Singh MD: You're like use constant reinforcement, not negative reinforcement.
• 46:23
  Sonia Singh MD: It doesn't like it when you close the app.
• 46:25
  Sonia Singh MD: It's like we're trying to train like this little gremlin on our shoulder.
• 46:29
  Sonia Singh MD: You know?
• 46:29
  Sonia Singh MD: Essentially at some point you're just like, but why?
• 46:32
  Sonia Singh MD: Why do I have the gremlin?
• 46:33
  Sonia Singh MD: Well, and I
• 46:33
  Rebecca Berens MD: gave
• 46:33
  Sonia Singh MD: up and I put a brick on,
• 46:34
  Rebecca Berens MD: so
• 46:35
  Sonia Singh MD: that was me.
• 46:36
  Sonia Singh MD: Yeah, but that's, I've never thought about that.
• 46:38
  Sonia Singh MD: But that makes a lot of sense, is just and I, it's funny because like sometimes I'll think oh, I wanna learn more about this particular thing.
• 46:46
  Sonia Singh MD: And then I, I have done the thing where I consciously, I'm like, oh, I'm gonna like this post'cause then it's gonna show me a few posts about this.
• 46:52
  Sonia Singh MD: And I haven't really thought of that consciously, but that is certainly an effective way to start shifting the algorithm to show you certain things.
• 46:58
  Sonia Singh MD: But yeah, it's just so hard to resist the human urge to not.
• 47:01
  Sonia Singh MD: It's not even, you don't have to click anything.
• 47:03
  Sonia Singh MD: Just your eyeballs have to look at a post for more than a few seconds.
• 47:06
  Sonia Singh MD: Sometimes I'll be very quickly trying to scan an ad'cause I'm like, oh, I don't want this ad again.
• 47:10
  Sonia Singh MD: But I
• 47:10
  Rebecca Berens MD: kind of wanna see what it's like a train wreck.
• 47:12
  Rebecca Berens MD: You can't look away, you know?
• 47:13
  Rebecca Berens MD: I guess it's as, and I'm like, oh my gosh, what?
• 47:15
  Rebecca Berens MD: And I was like, we can look at it.
• 47:17
  Rebecca Berens MD: Don't look at it scroll, but you can't help yourself.
• 47:19
  Rebecca Berens MD: You're just like, what are they saying now?
• 47:22
  Sonia Singh MD: Yeah.
• 47:22
  Sonia Singh MD: I mean, I think we're only just scratching the surface of how powerful these things are.
• 47:26
  Sonia Singh MD: Right now we still have this illusion that we have some sense of control over them, and I just think it's gonna become clearer and clearer that we do not.
• 47:33
  Sonia Singh MD: Yeah.
• 47:34
  Sonia Singh MD: Okay, cool.
• 47:34
  Sonia Singh MD: I think we covered everything.
• 47:36
  Sonia Singh MD: Oh, last, the last question is how might you talk about this with your patients?
• 47:40
  Sonia Singh MD: I think you kind of already, mentioned this, but go ahead and gimme your last 2 cents.
• 47:44
  Rebecca Berens MD: Yeah.
• 47:44
  Rebecca Berens MD: So, I think the big thing was asking the question, not just about time, but also type of content spent.
• 47:50
  Rebecca Berens MD: Mm-hmm.
• 47:51
  Rebecca Berens MD: And, and the question that I started asking is, are you concerned about your use of social media?
• 47:55
  Rebecca Berens MD: Mm-hmm.
• 47:56
  Rebecca Berens MD: Because this is a whole motivational interviewing skill, right?
• 47:58
  Rebecca Berens MD: If someone's not concerned about it, that's probably not somewhere you're going to be able to make a lot of headway.
• 48:03
  Rebecca Berens MD: But most people I find are concerned.
• 48:06
  Rebecca Berens MD: And just the question are you concerned about it?
• 48:09
  Rebecca Berens MD: I think opens it up in a way that's not judgmental and is not a way of you're, why are you watching that stuff on social media?
• 48:15
  Rebecca Berens MD: It's so trashy.
• 48:16
  Rebecca Berens MD: You know?
• 48:17
  Rebecca Berens MD: It coming at it with judgment is never effective, but coming at it, are you concerned about it?
• 48:21
  Rebecca Berens MD: And if they're not, let it be.
• 48:23
  Rebecca Berens MD: Focus on other things, but a lot of people are concerned and wanting to talk about this.
• 48:27
  Rebecca Berens MD: And so I think it, it really opens up a lot of avenues to have those conversations.
• 48:30
  Rebecca Berens MD: And then I think, like I said, for kids in particular talking to parents about.
• 48:34
  Rebecca Berens MD: Not just the screen time, it's the content.
• 48:37
  Rebecca Berens MD: Keeping them off of smartphones and social media as long as possible.
• 48:40
  Rebecca Berens MD: And if they are gonna be viewing content, making sure that it's kids safe and ideally you are present there with them so that if something comes up that's inappropriate, you can intervene.
• 48:50
  Rebecca Berens MD: Before it's.
• 48:51
  Rebecca Berens MD: Escalated.
• 48:52
  Rebecca Berens MD: And or you can even just have a conversation with them about it after the fact of like, Hey, what did you think about, this thing that you saw?
• 48:59
  Rebecca Berens MD: Because having that conversation will be really impactful for them.
• 49:02
  Rebecca Berens MD: I do think just in general, for kids, adolescents, adults, anyone really at this point, having that screening for eating disorders and disordered eating behavior, anyone who comes in with a concern about their weight their diet, their exercise, like they've likely looked at this content Yeah.
• 49:21
  Rebecca Berens MD: Before they got to your office, if they're coming in with a concern about it.
• 49:24
  Rebecca Berens MD: This is not the first day they thought about it.
• 49:25
  Rebecca Berens MD: Their algorithms probably been serving them up stuff for a while, so it's not enough to just talk about the concern.
• 49:30
  Rebecca Berens MD: It's also important to screen.
• 49:32
  Rebecca Berens MD: Have you been restricting your intake?
• 49:35
  Rebecca Berens MD: Have you been cutting out any food groups?
• 49:37
  Rebecca Berens MD: Have you been exercising to the point of injury?
• 49:40
  Rebecca Berens MD: Or even when you're ill, have you been making yourself throw up after a meal because you feel too full?
• 49:46
  Rebecca Berens MD: Have you been using laxatives?
• 49:47
  Rebecca Berens MD: Really just ask the direct questions because it's often not something that people volunteer.
• 49:51
  Rebecca Berens MD: There's a lot of stigma around it.
• 49:53
  Rebecca Berens MD: People feel ashamed but you can't help them if you haven't asked the question to know that it's going on.
• 49:58
  Sonia Singh MD: I like what you said about asking them if they're concerned because a lot of people actually are and may not think of that as a medical concern to even bring up, their social media usage.
• 50:09
  Sonia Singh MD: But actually I would say if I hadn't had this conversation with you, I can imagine a patient.
• 50:14
  Sonia Singh MD: Just not even thinking that it is something to be concerned about, but maybe just providing them with the education that a lot of the content around nutrition on social media may seem educational or inspiring or, helpful, but there's actually evidence that it can harm you and it can worsen, some of these behaviors and so.
• 50:34
  Sonia Singh MD: Even if they at that time may not be concerned about it, just sharing that information with them and allowing them to take some time to reflect on, wait, how, how does it make me feel?
• 50:43
  Sonia Singh MD: Because I don't think a lot of us, I think we just, we're doing it all the time, so there's not a lot of that checking in happening unless you're prompted to.
• 50:50
  Rebecca Berens MD: So, yeah, for sure.
• 50:51
  Rebecca Berens MD: And definitely if they're.
• 50:53
  Rebecca Berens MD: Starting to bring up oh, I'm following this diet, or I started doing this protocol.
• 50:57
  Rebecca Berens MD: That's a really easy time to be like, yeah, you know, there's a lot of information about this on the internet, or you may have seen some posts on social media doing this diet or this whatever.
• 51:06
  Rebecca Berens MD: And, this is the concern that I have about it.
• 51:08
  Rebecca Berens MD: Unfortunately, there's a lot of paid promotion and, bias posting and things, and so you can kind of bring it up.
• 51:14
  Rebecca Berens MD: I think just from a screening perspective the concern, for me at least, has, has caught quite a few people who have concerns that, again, people don't think that as a medical problem.
• 51:24
  Rebecca Berens MD: I really didn't think of it as a medical problem until pretty recently, but now I'm like, this is a big medical problem.
• 51:30
  Rebecca Berens MD: It's a big one of the bigger ones that we have right now.
• 51:32
  Rebecca Berens MD: It's really influencing people's health and it's not something we can ignore and I think important for, any physicians listening to be thinking about that as like a general screening for people.
• 51:42
  Sonia Singh MD: Totally agree.
• 51:44
  Sonia Singh MD: Well, thank you so much.
• 51:46
  Sonia Singh MD: This was a really fun episode and we will be, back next.
• 51:50
  Sonia Singh MD: A new topic for you.
• 51:52
  Sonia Singh MD: Yeah.
• 51:52
  Sonia Singh MD: Thanks so much.
• 51:53
  Sonia Singh MD: Okay.
• 51:53
  Sonia Singh MD: Bye bye.
• 51:55
  Sonia Singh MD: Hey, guys.
• 51:55
  Sonia Singh MD: Last but not least, we have a very important disclaimer.
• 51:59
  Sonia Singh MD: This podcast is intended for educational and entertainment purposes only.
• 52:03
  Sonia Singh MD: The content shared on this podcast, including but not limited to, opinions, research discussions, case examples, and commentary, is not medical advice and should not be considered a such.
• 52:14
  Sonia Singh MD: For professional medical evaluation, diagnosis, or treatment.
• 52:18
  Sonia Singh MD: Listening to this podcast does not establish a physician patient relationship between you and the hosts.
• 52:23
  Sonia Singh MD: We are doctors, but not your doctors.
• 52:25
  Sonia Singh MD: Any medical topics discussed are presented for general informational purposes and may not apply to your individual circumstances.
• 52:33
  Sonia Singh MD: Always seek the advice of your own qualified healthcare professional regarding any questions you have about your health.
• 52:38
  Sonia Singh MD: Medical conditions or treatment options, never disregard or delay medical advice because of something you've heard on this podcast.
• 52:45
  Sonia Singh MD: While the hosts are licensed physicians, the views and opinions expressed are our own and do not represent those of our employers, institutions, organizations, or professional societies with which we are affiliated.
• 52:57
  Sonia Singh MD: Although we do our best to stay up to date, please note that this podcast includes discussion of emerging research, evolving medical concepts, and differing professional opinions.
• 53:06
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• 53:10
  Sonia Singh MD: We, the hosts make no guarantees about the accuracy completely, or applicability of this content, and we disclaim any liability for actions taken or not taken based on the information provided in this podcast.
• 53:21
  Sonia Singh MD: By listening to the Antisocial Doctors Podcast, you have agreed to these terms.
• 53:25
  Sonia Singh MD: Thanks again for joining us.