Personal trainer Emmet Rushe tears into the issue of health and fitness misinformation being spread by influencers.

If you were to look at any industry, and you were to look at the leading ‘influencers’ within that industry, you will usually find a ‘celebrity’ or someone who is seen as a figure of authority.

The fitness industry is full of them, as is the diet industry.

The people that the general public turn to for their information are rarely those with the right information.

Do you believe everything fitness influencers say?

It is often the one with the best social media account, or the best You Tube channel, or who has a slot on TV and can preach their ideas to millions.

The problem with this is that most of the time, the people giving out the information are either poorly qualified to do this and the information that they are giving out is either incorrect, or a complete fallacy.

With the rise of social media influencers, there has also been a rise of false and blatantly made up misinformation.

The issue here is that this tends to be spread as the truth and it then seeps into the general public as being true.

Things have gotten so out of hand, that there was a worldwide march last year by scientists, marching against false facts that are being spread online.

Let that sink in.

Scientists had to march, to try and highlight the spread of fake facts.

Things have gone too far when it has come to this.

I am going to list out a few facts below.

These will not sit well with some, who follow some of these trends, but when you look at the actual science, what you believe to be true, may not be backed up by science and may actually be fake facts.

  • Sugar is NOT addictive
  • Diet coke is NOT bad for you
  • Carbs will NOT make you fat.
  • Gluten free is NOT healthier
  • Protein is NOT bad for you
  • You CANNOT Detox your body with products.
  • Fat burners DO NOT work.
  • All diets work BECAUSE they put you in a CALORIE DEFICIT. Not because of any other reason.
  • Eating loads of fat will NOT help you to burn more fat if you are NOT in a calorie deficit.
  • The scales are NOT an accurate indicator of FAT loss only what you weigh.
  • Organic food is NOT better for you.
  • Barring an actual hormonal issue, your hormones are NOT causing your weight issues.
  • There is NO perfect diet.
  • There are NO magic pills.
  • There is NO perfect training program.
  • Stop believing every meme you read on Facebook.

If you are looking at the list above and disagreeing with any of it, it is probably because of what you have been lead to believe and what you may think is true.

This is the issue that I am highlighting.

It is especially worrying when people are defending the above as true and if you try to say it’s not true, things online can actually get nasty.

I had a post 2 years ago on Diet Coke turn into a free for all on how it was basically the devil and I was Satan himself for saying I drank it. (This isn’t an exaggeration)

This way of thinking has spread into the medical community and people are stopping vaccinating their children.

The obesity epidemic is growing each year because people don’t believe there is an issue, and if you discuss it, it’s just ‘fat shaming’.

When it gets to this point, It is time to wake up to what the real facts are, and stop relying on Facebook and google for your information on your health.

I know it is very difficult to wade through the misinformation out there, but it is important that we try and look at things we see with an open mind, instead of believing everything that comes across our social media news-feed.