Influencers promoting carnivore diets, raw milk and other risky eating practices threaten the health of tens of millions of people, while making bank themselves.
Dozens of ‘super-spreaders’ are fuelling people’s social media feeds with dangerous health misinformation for their own financial benefit, a new analysis by Rooted Research Collective and the Freedom Food Alliance has found.
Proponents of carnivore and ketogenic diets and foods such as unpasteurised milk, as well as influencers who attack plant-based food and seed oils as “scams”, are putting their tens of millions of followers at risk with harmful and misleading nutrition advice.
While the analysis does not name these ‘super-spreaders’, it reveals that a majority of them (87%) are not qualified as medical doctors. In fact, 59% have no health qualification at all. In spite of that, one in five present themselves as credentialled experts.
“Nutrition is complex, but it doesn’t have to be confusing. Superspreaders exploit that confusion by offering dangerously simple answers dressed up as hacks, often driven by profit, not science,” said Alice Millbank, co-founder and chief scientific officer at Rooted Research.
The three types of misinformation influencers
The researchers noted how 57% of millennials and Gen Zers are influenced by nutrition trends on TikTok, with two-thirds adopting them multiple times a week. This is alarming, considering that only 2% of the nutrition content on the platform aligns with established public health guidelines. Meanwhile, one in five Americans trusts health influencers more than local medical practitioners.
In the analysis of these 53 super-spreaders, the most popular theme of misinformation is the carnivore diet, which accounted for 29% of the analysed posts. This was followed by general health and nutritional information (25%) and content about low-carb and ketogenic diets (24%).
“What became immediately clear is that nutrition misinformation rarely exists in isolation,” the report says. Over 90% of these super-spreaders shared content spanning multiple misinformation themes, with carnivore diet advocacy frequently overlapping with keto diets or anti-seed-oil rhetoric. Moreover, there has been an increase in the promotion of raw milk, with 15% of profiles endorsing it as a health food – this narrative often appears within posts that use ‘carnivore’ and other related hashtags.
These super-spreading influencers fall into three categories identified by the report. The Docs are individuals with “Dr” on their profiles, regardless of whether they’re medical doctors. They gain high levels of credibility because of their ‘expert’ status, and use fear-mongering and alarmist language to promote government distrust, Big Pharma conspiracies, anti-seed-oil claims, and carnivore diets.
The Rebels, meanwhile, are self-styled disruptors who reject science around health and medicine, using anti-establishment rhetoric and posing as whistleblowers to push dietary misinformation. Their messaging is emotionally charged, with some leaning into anger and others using a motivational style. They frequently advocate for carnivore diets and raw milk, and make use of religion or gender to reinforce their narrative.
Then there are The Hustlers. They’re polished entrepreneurs who blended wellness marketing with personal transformation stories. Posts about weight loss, glowing skin, endless energy and improved health are interspersed with sponsorship deals, affiliate links, and coaching and meal plans. These influencers use uplifting language – or “joy-mongering” – to promote “simple” solutions that actually tend to be restrictive.
What drives these super spreaders?
If you’re wondering what influencers get out of this, it’s all about the money. The analysis suggests that 96% of these super-spreaders have a “clear financial incentive” tied to the misinformation they’re peddling.
About half of them have their own businesses, through which they sell supplements and snacks, run healthcare consultancies, or offer biohacking therapy. A similar number use affiliate links and discount codes to promote supplements, snacks and meat-based equipment.
A third of these super-spreaders offer either direct courses or one-to-one coaching on switching to the keto or carnivore diets, or indirect coaching that incorporates extreme dietary advice. And a quarter leverage sponsored posts in partnership with supplement companies, snack brands and meat-focused products, which are “often indistinguishable from the super-spreader’s regular content”.
A couple of the influencers also organise or promote in-person events like carnivore meetups or questionable nutrition-themed conferences.
The influencers with the largest followings earn over $100,000 per month just from their social media profiles, in addition to the income from their professions. And the 46 influencers with no medical qualifications often charge $100-250 per hour for consultations, with some offering biohacking programmes for tens of thousands of dollars.
How to combat online health misinformation
The researchers make several calls to action to limit the spread of non-communicable diseases and protect public health. Early interventions are critical – putting practical nutrition and digital literacy in the school curriculum can help kids spot misinformation better and make more informed dietary choices.
They advocate for a revamp of public health messaging. Stakeholders should invest in trusted nutritional professionals to engage with people on social media as an alternative to traditional top-down messaging.
Plus, there’s a need for better training for healthcare professionals online. The report calls for misinformation education, the enforcement of ethical guidelines, and a crackdown on the misuse of medical titles for personal profit.
Dr Matthew Nagra, a Canadian naturopathic doctor, called the research “deeply concerning”, since it involved not just “influencers and laypeople”, but medical professionals, too. “When those in positions of trust spread inaccurate information, it carries even more weight and the consequences are real,” he said.
The analysis reveals that nutrition misinformation is closely interwoven with other themes like women’s rights – with many of these super-spreaders pushing political commentary about women’s traditional roles in the home. It chimes with research from the UK, where young men are eating up misinformation and meat with a side of misogyny.
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