Today we’re embarking on a journey through the wild west that is health claims on the internet. I’ll be addressing the logical fallacies in health, fitness, and nutrition that have plagued the internet. As a Certified Personal Trainer with nearly a decade of education under my belt, I’ve heard it all – from outrageous “detox” teas to the promises of certain foods and/or products “burning fat”.
In high school, prior to any professional education, I fell victim to the “100 sit-ups a day for toned abs” claims I would see all over Tumblr and purchased every gimmicky cellulite-reducing lotion I could afford. The internet convinced me of overnight results and I believed it.
But fear not, friends! By developing critical thinking skills to recognize common logical fallacies, we can quickly differentiate between fact from fiction to navigate the flood of misinformation online. Let’s dive right into what logical fallacies are and how they aim to fool us.
What Are Logical Fallacies?
Logical fallacies are deceptive arguments that seem too good to be true. These arguments and claims are designed to trick people into believing they are credible facts, but in reality, can be disproven with further research.
3 Common Logical Fallacies in Health
1. Appeal to Authority
Appeal to authority is a classic tactic we see everywhere online. It’s a method of manipulation that uses celebrities, self-proclaimed gurus, supposed experts, and other authoritative figures to add credibility to health and fitness claims. This takes advantage of those who follow these figures online and likely look to them for influence and inspiration. Credentials and popularity don’t mean someone is an expert.
I’m sure at one point you’ve scrolled through your social media feed and came across a post from an influencer or celebrity making a claim about fat loss or detoxes. One popular gimmick are detox teas. Who else remembers when Kim Kardashian swore her figure was from using tummy-flattening detox teas and products?
The tea company paid this celebrity to advertise their product. This is an appeal to authority tactic. If a Kardashian uses it, it must be legit right? Wrong. Celebrities are not reliable sources.
A main give away is that she used #ad in her caption, admitting that this was a paid sponsorship. If you don’t read the caption, it could be easy to think this is just a picture of her enjoying a cup of tea. But another give away that this is an appeal to authority tactic is by the product placement, which means she was paid to have the product placed in a photo. I wonder if she ever even tasted it? Is there anything in that cup?
When looking to health advice online, look for evidence-based recommendations from qualified professionals who can prove their expertise in the industry, not from a celebrity claiming they personally used it for weight loss or “detoxing”. The brand paid her to promote their product so her followers would buy it.
2. Bandwagon Fallacy
Raise your hand if you’ve never been tempted to hop on the latest bandwagon. Not sure if many of us can.
The bandwagon fallacy is when you do something because everyone else is doing it. This involves arguments that something must be true because it’s popular. Now more than ever we are plagued by the latest trends on social media.
The most recent fitness bandwagon fallacy I’ve seen everywhere in my algorithm is the “12-3-30” treadmill workout. This is where you set the treadmill to a 12% incline at a 3 mph speed, and walk for 30 minutes.
Now, using the treadmill is great for cardiovascular health, but that’s not where the bandwagon fallacy comes in. What makes the 12-3-30 workout trend a fallacy is the clickbait claims that content creators are making to get others to join in, such as, “if you want to burn fat and keep muscles, do the 12-3-30 workout” in this example below from a YouTube Short.
With basic research of how the human body works, we know that maintaining muscle mass, or “keeping muscles” as said above, is a benefit of strength training, not exclusively doing cardio exercise.
Additionally, this creator’s claim of “if you want to burn fat, do this” implies that walking on the treadmill for 30 minutes during the 12-3-30 workout will exclusively burn fat… but his isn’t true. In fact, your body uses glycogen (glucose – carbohydrates to sugar) FIRST for energy in the initial 30-60 minutes of exercise before it actually begins to use fat as its fuel source.
Most health related bandwagon fallacies online have click-bait captions with words like “do this to burn belly fat”, “lose xx lbs in xx days”, “do this workout to get these same results as the rest of us”, “a low-fat diet can help you lose weight too”, etc.
Just because everyone else online is doing something, doesn’t mean you will see the same results. What’s important to remember when considering jumping on a bandwagon is that you’re likely not seeing the whole story, you’re just seeing copy-and-paste content that’s trendy and popular for going viral at the moment.
3. The Texas Sharpshooter
This fallacy is a deceptive tactic that uses cherry-picking of information or data to create an illusion, pattern, or connection where one doesn’t actually exist.
An example of this can be seen in most clickbait images of before-and-after body results from supposedly following a workout plan or fad diet. These photo comparisons can be incredibly misleading and distort one’s perception of what’s real or not. These images are often accompanied by recommendations and dramatic claims, which makes the images seem legitimate.
The reality is that these images use manipulation techniques like lighting, positioning, angles, clothing choice, and unfortunately even photoshop editing. Cherry-picking the most dramatic “before” and the most flattering “after” photos helps support the claims they are making and makes a bigger impact on their viewers.
Above, I included a screenshot of two videos on this YouTuber’s channel that are a perfect example of this fallacy and before-and-after imagery. You can easily notice the difference in lighting and positioning of her body in each video’s cover image.
In the cover image on the right, you might notice that her torso on the “before” side (left) is slightly longer than in the other photo, suggesting there’s a high likelihood that she digitally altered her body to emphasize a correlation.
She also cherry-picks words like “afraid of food”, “fear foods”, “exercise addiction”, and “cheat week” to add dramatics to her clickbait titles and manipulated before-and-after pictures. The title on the right says “it changed my life”, but her images imply “it changed my body/appearance”. This cover image creates a false illusion that if someone stopped working out for one week, they would see all of their hard work disappear (which isn’t true).
The cover image on the left includes 4 cut-outs of her posing in different angles and lighting. Even something subtle like her underwear being pulled down lower on her hips is a form of manipulation, considering she has them pulled up higher in other angles, which can make one’s waist appear smaller and accentuated.
Something so simple and discrete like this plays into cherry-picking and the Texas Sharpshooter fallacy since the goal is to deceive and create an illusion of a correlation that doesn’t exist.
The key to avoiding being misled by health fallacies like these is to be skeptical, apply critical thinking skills, and ask the right questions.
Some questions can be:
What are their credentials and what is their level of expertise?
Are there any red flag or emotionally-provoking words?
What evidence did they provide?
Trust your instincts and always do your own research across multiple sources. Using methods like SIFT and lateral reading can help empower you be a literate health media consumer.
Remember that everyone has different goals, genetics, health history, and individual needs, so it’s important not to follow exactly what a celebrity is doing, hop on the latest bandwagon, or take cherry-picked information as evidence-based truth.
Stay curious, stay informed, and most importantly, stay empowered.
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