16: Why Wellness Influencers Suck

Wellness influencers of today are all too often modern-day snake oil salesmen who also happen to be masters of social media. Enthusiasm, optimism, passion, and artistry trumps evidence, knowledge, facts, and expertise. Most wellness influencers know very little about nutrition, metabolism, or weight management, and yet they are the leaders in the field. On today’s episode, The Nutrition Grouch provides his observations on what it takes to become an influencer and why he will never do what it takes to become one. Some of the topics in today’s podcast include: The three types of wellness influencer (11:24) Doctors (MDs) can be the worst fact offenders (12:35) My mother-n-law’s hyperbolic nature (in a good way) (15:47) The event that changed my life forever (17:03) Oversimplistic, unifying theories to explain everything (21:17 The traits and characteristics that make a great quarterback (24:59) Make losing weight so easy that you don’t even have to try (27:10) Be a contrarian, go against the grain, see what no one else can (31:29) Promote, promote, promote (34:55) How Flo from Progressive and wellness influencers are very similar (35:56) Quantity > Quality (37:51) Masters in reductionism (38:28) Everything you eat will kill you! (38:43) The one and only blog I subscribe to (41:42) Make people feel good about themselves and what they’re doing (42:58) Lexus and Apple versus Kia and Timex – the role of status (45:32) I think I’m better than you, how did nutrition become so moral? (46:12) Some problems just aren’t fixable (46:45) Entertainment > Education (51:05) Absolute Certainty (55:23) Wellness professionals significantly overestimate the importance of their fields (56:21) Personal experience and testimonials cannot replace research (58:05) Conclusion – not all influencers are created equally bad (1:00:45) The two people in the field that I jam with (1:02:46) Why fitness might have the most “good” influencers (1:03:19) What do we do about these influencers? (1:05:30)