This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Avoid dairy, fruit and red meat; take vitamin D supplements—these are some of the nutrition claims circulating online for breast cancer patients, but how many of them are actually based on fact?

Researchers from Adelaide University analyzed more than 150 nutrition claims from eight online platforms, including Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, Google and ChatGPT.

"We found the majority of online nutrition claims targeting people with breast cancer are not supported by reliable scientific evidence," said study author Negin Amin, a Ph.D. candidate at Adelaide University's School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Science.

"The chance of finding this unsubstantiated advice is much higher on X or TikTok, where up to 76% are not backed up by science."

The researchers grouped the claims by the type of content provider—health professionals, personal accounts or groups and organizations. They then evaluated the claims against current evidence, including nutritional guidelines for patients with cancer, along with clinical studies.

Claims from health professionals were more likely to be consistent with evidence (29%), compared with personal accounts (24%) or information shared by groups or organizations (24%). However, health professionals also shared the least amount of breast cancer nutrition information.

The most common unsupported claims found online included "avoid dairy and animal protein during cancer treatment," "the sugar in fruits feeds cancer cells" and "olive oil can cure cancer."

"Our study shows that non-evidence-based nutrition information is being shared widely online.

Source link