VIDEOS ABOUT DIETS BROADCAST ON YOUTUBE: A COMMUNICATION CHANNEL VERY ACCESSED BY ADOLESCENT

Background and objectives: The number of adolescent who access websites such as YouTube for information on weight loss grows every day. This age group shows frequent dissatisfaction with body image, being more sensitive and vulnerable to the information contained in these videos, mainly on how to reach the ideal body through diets. Therefore, attention should be paid to the quality of the content posted, to avoid possible inappropriate eating behaviors and health damage in this specific population. Thus, the purpose of this work is to identify the contents of videos on YouTube about diets and weight loss. Methods: This is an exploratory research, with a quantitative approach, carried out on the website YouTube, to characterize YouTube videos addressing diets for weight loss. A search of the videos was made from March 23 to March 27 2017 using the descriptor "diet". 2,160,000 videos were identified, but only the first fifty-five were analyzed. The exclusion criteria were humor videos and / or parodies about diets and videos with an emphasis on physical activity (hypertrophy). Results: 67,3% of the analyzed videos had as approach, restrictive diets, with main content short-term weight loss practices. These videos were also the ones that had the higher viewers, approximately 2 million and were transmitted by lay people (94,6%). Only 5,5% of the videos were transmitted by health professionals, such as nutritionist (33,3%) and nutrologist (66,7%) addressing guidelines for healthy eating. Conclusions: Most of the videos showed inadequate weight loss practices being reported mainly by lay people. In this scenario, we identify the importance of nutritionists and government health agencies, through Public Policies, to join this growing communication channel (YouTube) in promoting healthy eating habits.