How AI and Social Media Rewire Your Brain Around Food | Exposing the New Diet Culture | ANEW Ep. 123

 In this thought-provoking episode of The ANEW Insight Podcast, Dr. Supatra Tovar welcomes Dr. Tatyana El-Kour, Senior Research Fellow in Psychology and Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, for an eye-opening exploration of how media, technology, and artificial intelligence are reshaping our eating behaviors, body image, and health beliefs.

Dr. El-Kour—whose groundbreaking research spans over 25 years and 100 scholarly publications—unpacks how digital culture and diet culture are colliding to create confusion, shame, and misinformation in today’s wellness landscape. Together, Dr. Tovar and Dr. El-Kour trace the global evolution of food narratives—from cultural traditions to modern marketing—and reveal how social media algorithms now influence what, when, and how we eat.

They examine viral diet trends like intermittent fasting, protein obsession, and GLP-1 weight loss drugs, exposing how the absence of scientific nuance online leads to distorted health behaviors. Dr. El-Kour explains how AI-driven feeds reward emotional highs rather than evidence-based caution, turning misinformation into the new normal. From “food pornography” videos to TikTok self-diagnosis trends, this episode reveals how entertainment-driven nutrition content is reshaping youth perceptions of health and body image.

Listeners will gain practical, compassionate insight into how to reclaim autonomy over their digital diets. Dr. El-Kour emphasizes cultural context and critical thinking as antidotes to the algorithmic chaos—reminding us that food is never just about nutrients; it’s narrative.

Whether you’re a parent worried about your teen’s social media use, a clinician navigating the digital health frontier, or someone seeking peace with food in a hyperconnected world, this episode offers both wisdom and tools to build awareness, resilience, and balance in the face of digital influence.

🔑 What You’ll Learn in This Episode

• How AI and algorithms shape eating behavior and body image
• The psychology behind “food pornography” and performative eating
• Why self-diagnosis trends on TikTok endanger youth mental health
• How intermittent fasting and protein marketing are misrepresented online
• The importance of cultural context in global nutrition messaging
• Strategies for media literacy, digital resilience, and mindful consumption
  
  

⏱ Timestamps
 0:00 – Introduction & Dr. El-Kour’s background
 3:00 – How media and culture shape food narratives
 6:00 – The rise of intermittent fasting and its hidden risks
 9:00 – Protein marketing, industry profit, and misinformation
 13:00 – AI algorithms and the distortion of eating norms
 18:00 – Food as performance: the psychology of “food porn”
 22:00 – Protecting youth from self-diagnosis and disordered eating
 27:00 – Practical tools for digital literacy and emotional awareness

📚 Continue Your Journey
 📖 Read Deprogram Diet Culture →

Thank you for joining us on this journey to wellness. Remember, the insights and advice shared on the ANEW Body Insight Podcast are for educational and informational purposes only and do not constitute medical advice. Always consult with a healthcare professional before making any changes to your health routine. To learn more about the podcast and stay updated on new episodes, visit ANEW Body Insight Podcast at anew-insight.com. To watch this episode on YouTube, visit @my.anew.insight. Follow us on social media at @my.anew.insight on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Threads for more updates and insights. Thank you for tuning in! Stay connected with us for more empowering stories and expert guidance. Until next time, stay well and keep evolving with ANEW Body Insight!

Transcript

0:00 dr--supatra-tovar_1_09-10-2025_110408: 0:01

Me too. So, uh, Dr. El-Kour and I met at the APA conference, the American Psychological Conference in, uh, Denver. And, uh, she, I was blown away by her presentation and then just learning she's also a dietician. We're very rare, uh, in our field to be psychologists and dieticians. I knew I had to invite her on my podcast. So I'm gonna read a little bit about, uh, Dr. El-Kour, and then we're gonna get right into the questions. Dr. Tatyana El-Kour is a senior research fellow at the Media Psychology Research Center and a fellow registered dietician nutritionist with over 25 years of experience examining how media, technology and culture influence eating behaviors and health decisions. This is something I have been very interested in. She has led pioneering global research. Authored more than 100 scholarly publications and delivered over 500 workshops worldwide. Dedicated to bridging science and innovation. El-Kour's mission is to empower healthier, more informed communities by harnessing the power of media and technology. So you can see why I invited her on this podcast. We really are interested in ways that we can improve our health, and I think that, we're not as aware of the influences that media play on us, and that's why I invited Dr. El-kour. So welcome Dr. El-Kour. Me too. So, uh, Dr. El-Kour and I met at the APA conference, the American Psychological Conference in, uh, Denver. And, uh, she, I was blown away by her presentation and then just learning she's also a dietician. We're very rare, uh, in our field to be psychologists and dieticians. I knew I had to invite her on my podcast. So I'm gonna read a little bit about, uh, Dr. El-Kour, and then we're gonna get right into the questions. Dr. Tatyana El-Kour is a senior research fellow at the Media Psychology Research Center and a fellow registered dietician nutritionist with over 25 years of experience examining how media, technology and culture influence eating behaviors and health decisions. This is something I have been very interested in. She has led pioneering global research. Authored more than 100 scholarly publications and delivered over 500 workshops worldwide. Dedicated to bridging science and innovation. El-Kour's mission is to empower healthier, more informed communities by harnessing the power of media and technology. So you can see why I invited her on this podcast. We really are interested in ways that we can improve our health, and I think that, we're not as aware of the influences that media play on us, and that's why I invited Dr. El-kour. So welcome Dr. El-Kour.

dr-tatyana-el-kour_1_09-10-2025_210408: 0:03

You know, Supatra, from the beginning I saw that food choices are, are never made in isolation. They're shaped by the stories and cues around us. And growing up between Amman and North America, I noticed how the same drizzle of olive oil was celebrated in heritage with my grandma, but it was also labeled as fat to avoid in US markets.

dr--supatra-tovar_1_09-10-2025_110408: 0:04

Mm absolutely. So give me little bit of a picture of how you went into this kind of research as far as you know, what our messaging is. And messaging is from everywhere. It's from social media, it's from news, it's from what comes out of the, uh, Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. So, gimme a picture of how you started to shape your research.

dr-tatyana-el-kour_1_09-10-2025_210408: 0:05

And, and another was the body ideal effect, you know, in, in Cairo for example, where also I worked quite, uh, a number of years billboards of ultra lean models, you know, didn't really inspire health. They pushed teens towards skipping meals and, and research confirms that media exposure increases body dissatisfaction and even disordered eating risks. So the, the missing piece is nuance. You know, new research shows us that, you know, people who eat in very short windows, like fewer than eight hours a day, actually have a higher risk of heart disease and. The lesson is, you know, diet trends aren't inherently good or bad. You know, it's all about context.

dr--supatra-tovar_1_09-10-2025_110408: 0:07

Oh, absolutely. It's so interesting. I just had Dr. Satchin Panda on my podcast who basically discovered the light sensing, uh, cell in our eye, melanopsin, and he wrote the Circadian Code and we were talking about this. And I think a lot of his research was actually subsumed into diet culture, and kind of altered because what he actually. Very harmful, very stressful, and very difficult to sustain. Oh my goodness. So we have so much to unpack here. You know, you gave me a picture of some of the patterns that you noticed and how media shapes our food choices. Do you have an, you know, expanded view on that? Especially lately, maybe even what we're seeing with, you know, the proliferation of, um, protein recommendations. That's what I'm seeing so much of in the media lately that I find disturbing. You know, hormones are normal. It's a normal trajectory of a human body, and so. Building that kind of a negative connotation to it is, is something that is, uh, that is prolific and it's on the media and it's also being magnified. The other piece, or the other trend I'm seeing is food, pornography, where you see a lot of, uh, you know, trends. And I wanna spend a really great portion on that in the second half of this podcast And just back to the protein that I think it's very scary right now because I think it, you know, all, all of these recommendations are based off of consumerism, um, and industries wanting to make as much money as possible. If you look at like the animal agricultural industry. It's an unsustainable industry because they're promoting such high levels of intake. Um, and I think that they're doing that because they, they know that the resource is, uh, finite. We're running out of, uh, you know land, arable land that the, uh, cattle can graze, that the livestock can graze. Um, the prices are going to be rising. So they're trying to promote, especially animal protein, um, to, with, uh, to levels that I think are really, uh, harmful to our health. You have AI behind, you know, behind your screens, you know, tracking your behavior, looking. Targeting your emotions and even predicting how you are going to continuously be exposed and even relate to the message without thinking about it or analyzing it. And then of course there is the other piece where climate, So we are even adding to the confusion of consumers and, and, and I believe the behavior of industry has intertwined with our like own behavior as consumers with technology has really added layers of complexity. So professionals like us as registered dieticians will need, will lean into upskill our ourselves in technology, but also in understanding the industry behavior around, uh, around such, uh, promotion and such products.

dr-tatyana-el-kour_1_09-10-2025_210408: 0:14

Sure, sure. Absolutely. So culture is the soil. You know, messages grow when they honor it, and, and, and basically they fail when, when it's not honored. So in Jordan, olive oil is heritage. So a low fat everything campaign would feel insulting. And so, but when you reframe it as you probably could measure with a particular spoon and integrate it as part of your lifestyle, the same piece of advice can be embraced. In cultures like in Japan, in Osaka, in Japan, students made a game of creating, you know, rainbow colored bento lunches. Uh, and so they balanced. Balance through beauty and, and not restriction. And that was so powerful among students. So it brought in the colors, but it brought in the balance without giving the restriction piece. So, and when as global diet trends spread, you know, culture always decides, and that was my, that's my experience every country I've been to. The key isn't about exporting one rule. It's about weaving health into the stories of people already that you know the stories that they live by. I don't think there is a one size fits all. I, I cannot say that we would be fair by treating all states equally. It really depends on the ethnic profile, on the cultural diversity, so, and then also on the variety of cultures that each area would embrace. And so, and you'll be surprised because A, with AI there's a hyper-personalization element, and so it's feeding into what you would like to, to get exposed to and also to engage with. And the, the one key piece of information was from each other. They were learning how to insert IUDs. They were getting their nutrition advice from each other and from those videos. And then when you analyze all the video exposures, you looked at it and maybe one in 10,000 was from a healthcare professional.

dr--supatra-tovar_1_09-10-2025_110408: 0:18

I would agree. And I, I've been a part of certain Facebook groups that are interested in, uh, the newest GLP ones and GIP's, and I will have to say just kind of observing these groups, they, it is in a sense kind of, you know, they're, they're giving each other nutritional advice, which often is filled with misinformation and I think that that just spreads and grows and it's, it's quite frightening when you see that, you know, that's how people are really kind of spreading this information. Gimme a picture too, of how all of these new technologies, like social media, digital advertising, you're talking about ai, how have they changed the way we think about food and nutrition? Unlike sitting at the family table, like what we normally do, viewers are immersed in an endless stream, you know, appetite triggered again and again without satisfaction. So over time, this can normalize over consumption and distort what normal portions look like. And, and then a algorithms, there are many algorithms, okay, that are really, uh, observing and, uh, monitoring your behaviors. Oh, absolutely. And I think if you were to combine that with what we know, uh, in terms of food, technology and engineering, you know, especially within ultra processed foods, they're, you know, hyper engineered to stimulate our brain's pleasure centers for sugar, salt, and fat. And that really drives us to eat well beyond fullness, so you have that influence. And then we're gonna talk a lot more about that. The other side, which is diet culture, influence, and I think you know, the interplay of these two things is creating a lot of confusion and a lot of shame. Would you agree with the shame portion? We're not supposed

dr-tatyana-el-kour_1_09-10-2025_210408: 0:21

Yeah, uh, I definitely agree with you on the same piece. And then what we're supposed to do is, I think the first, the first step is become aware of the, of the effects, you know, become aware of this environment of what we're watching and taking a pause just observing. Taking a pause is, is one key element.

dr--supatra-tovar_1_09-10-2025_110408: 0:22

Yes. But what about, say younger people who don't necessarily have that savvy knowledge yet and they're just becoming inundated. Their feed, they, they say that they're watching something, diet culture related, orthorexia related, and then they start to see this more and more and more. How does a parent try to help their teen who might be consuming this content, um, to their detriment? And so they need to teach their children. What do they notice when you, when you, when, when they scroll, and how does it make them feel? And that builds aspects of literacy, you know, media literacy, but also digital literacy. And then if you do it with joy, with some balance in between, and then a discussion with the family, this becomes even a more entertaining exercise. And what we are seeing, for example, in the United States is that with, you know, where migrant populations are, are really large, is that it's, you know, they're, they're, they're stripped away from their own culture. 'cause the older generation or you know, the gen, gen Z and millennials are completely different than their parents. Absolutely. And I, I, I work with a lot of teens, young adults, uh, who are struggling with eating disorders and disordered eating. And this is also a part of my book where I recommend that people look at their social media feed and just gauge how they feel when they're scrolling through it and really look at certain content and if certain content is making them feel bad about themselves, making them feel like they need to diet, making them feel like they're not good enough, hide, block, unfollow all of that and gravitate towards things that bring you joy. Like basically my algorithm is puppies and kittens. Kevin Bacon playing, you know, his guitar to his goats. I mean, you name it, whatever, just is like happy place for social media, and so there is a lot more control that you have over your feed. What do you think are like the biggest risks you see with the use of AI algorithms and targeted food advertising when it comes to disordered eating and body image issues?

dr-tatyana-el-kour_1_09-10-2025_210408: 0:26

Uh, I think the danger is, uh, precision harm. You know, traditional ads cast a wide net, but AI pinpoints individuals. So for one teem, curiosity about fasting leads to endless skipping meals basically. And then, um, and then they feel good about watching even more of that. For another, a single carb cutting click feels the feed with content, you know, demonizing rice or bread and on the, and then the food, you know, and then on the other side of the story you see the food pornography is, you know, oversized burgers, 10,000 calorie challenges, et cetera, that can normalize the binge style eating. So the system doesn't know if you paused because you felt fascinated or anxious, it just assumes that you are interested. So the, the longer you pause, the more videos you watch, then this means we need to give you more. And so in this way, algorithms amplify both extremes, restriction and excess. And in disordered the eating, this is really a horrific piece. And psychology tells us repetition, even deepens, internalization. When restriction or binge style eating is repeated daily, it becomes your norm. So without safeguards, as you kindly mentioned, you know, the hide post, the block, normalizing the content, even AI risks, turning food from a source of culture and care into a cycle of extremes or even shame and ba blame and guilt, uh, is, is, is, is, is really, uh, and this would be really, really critical to, to address the safeguards would be very important. So this process, you know, understanding what happens is really important. That's the first step. As you, I, I don't know about your experience, but working with youth and teenagers, if I tell them to hide, like, why do you want me to hide my, my friends have watched this 12 times.

dr--supatra-tovar_1_09-10-2025_110408: 0:28

Yes. And I would say teenagers are really responsible, are responsive to, um, you know, kind of sticking it to the man if they know the man is the algorithm and it's trying to feed them stuff to, you know, influence them and, um, you know. Like influence their food choices and harm them, then they are more apt to reject that if they know it's a system that's coming in trying to harm them. So teenagers out there listen to that. That's the way you can stick it to the man. Um, don't let the algorithm control you. And really base it off of your feelings, like I think our feelings are so important and we don't tap into them as much as we should. Our bodies tell us when something isn't right, and you get that awful feeling. Gravitate towards the stuff online that makes you feel good, makes you feel worthwhile, makes you feel like you are good enough. So we're gonna get into that a lot more in our second half, and we're out of time for this first half, but oh my gosh, Tatyana, this is so important for everyone to hear. Mothers, especially of teenage uh, kids, but everyone needs to know how much AI is influencing us and maybe not in the best, most helpful ways. So thank you so much for joining me for the first half