I had twenty minutes until sports training started, and I was hungry. I’d skipped lunch again running my club at school, and hadn’t eaten anything since. So, when a familiar flash of red and yellow appeared down the street, I told myself: What choice do I have?

As I unwrapped my burger, the voices of online influencers drowned out my mind.

“You’ll be chronically ill by thirty.”

“Do you want to be obese?”

“Fast food will literally k*ll you.”

The guilt tasted worse than the grease. 

It’s not just me. Teenagers are surrounded by confusing information and structural barriers that make eating healthy inaccessible, and we’re made to feel horrible about it. Social media drives shame and anxiety around not following the ‘ideals’ of good nutrition. With millions of young Australians struggling, we need real change in the online environments that shape the way we choose and feel about food. 

It only takes a few minutes of scrolling online to see this: influencers saying exactly what to eat for the perfect body, food hacks “you can’t miss”, protein supplements for “maxxing out the gym”… With almost two-thirds of teenagers exposed to health information online, this isn’t something we can simply avoid.

Plus, it feels impossible to know what to trust when everyone online sounds so certain. Studies already show that most people creating nutrition content online aren’t qualified as health experts , so how can they present their opinions as facts so confidently? The truth is, these posts are usually designed with emotive language, warnings or worst-case scenarios to grab our clicks. For young people, this means spreading uncertainty and doubt that stop us from being confident about our food choices; the 2026 RCH National Child Health Poll highlights how the majority of teenagers and parents either “agree with” or are “not sure about” nutrition-related misbeliefs.

Confusion from online information is one thing, but those exaggerated messages follow us even when we put our phones down. I’ve seen friends stuck staring at the restaurant menu, convinced that choosing the wrong meal could ruin their health. That’s not being healthy; that’s fear—research has found that eating-related guilt may be linked to anxiety, depression and reduced self-esteem . Guilt like this is amplified by the social media content that sets impossible standards about food and teaches us to believe that eating healthy is easy; we just aren’t doing enough.

We’re made to feel like the ones to blame.

And that’s not even the worst part—knowing what the healthy choice is doesn’t guarantee that we can choose for ourselves. With all the commitments that a young person has to balance, eating becomes less about nutrition and more about convenience. Fast foods give us just that: they target student-frequented areas, making them easier to access than the healthier alternatives. Prepping meals ourselves isn’t always realistic when it means sacrificing precious time or sleep.

These everyday obstacles are pushing the ball further and further away from our side of the court. Between questioning what the right choices are and struggling to choose them, it feels like we’re left caught in the middle with the odds stacked against us.

Eating should be something enjoyable and relaxing, not another stressor in our already chaotic lives. With so many teenagers already struggling with mental health, it feels absurd to me that food becomes another reason for us to suffer.

Navigating misinformation can be hard, but we can’t wait for the algorithms to change. We need to take the first step ourselves. That means being aware and tuning out unqualified noise. Instead of blindly trusting influencers with funny faces or discount codes, we need to seek information from reliable websites and experts like nutritionists or other health professionals.

More importantly, we need to normalise that eating healthy isn’t easy; struggling doesn’t mean failing. If online media is making young people feel ashamed about it, then we do the opposite—empower those around us to feel confident through chats, awareness campaigns or health education, so that more people realise how food and mental health go hand-in-hand.

We can also contribute by voicing our ideas to policy and decision-makers, advocating for changes that turn healthy food choices into something achievable, not just the ideal. This means increasing the affordability and visibility of healthy options, whether at schools or around the community.

The deal is, teenagers will continue to struggle with healthy eating, unless there is change.

While the problem is in the environment, it’s our ball game to choose how we respond. We choose whose voices we let in, and whose we block out. We can make the decisions that help stop another teenager from feeling guilty about food.

This time, it’s our choice.

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References

Evans, S., Lambert, K., Dinale, A., Quinn, M., & Cosier, D. (2025). Unqualified Advice and Product Promotions: Analysis of Health and Nutrition Content on Social Media Consumed by Young Adults. Nutrients, 18(1), 44. https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643...

Mason, T. B., Smith, K. E., Naya, C., Chu, D., & Dunton, G. F. (2021). Eating-related guilt and mental health across middle childhood to early adolescence. Journal of Affective Disorders Reports, 6, 100221. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadr... ;

RCH National Child Health Poll – A teen perspective: health messages and social media. (2025). The Royal Children’s Hospital. https://rchpoll.org.au/polls/a-teen-perspective-health-messages-and-social-media/

RCH National Child Health Poll – Teens and food: Do they know the facts? (2026). The Royal Children’s Hospital. https://rchpoll.org.au/polls/t... ;