Intermittent Fasting – News and Opinion

Last week, I shared that the topic I’ll be diving into this semester was intermittent fasting – How it’s portrayed in the media.

I’ve always been fascinated with “fad” diets.

 How quickly they are picked up and even more interesting, how they are shared and portrayed through different mediums.

This assignment allowed me to look deeper into not just how intermittent fasting is being written about, but how it wants to be perceived. Since I am taking a look at these articles and blogs from the standpoint of wanting to see “How” they are writing about the content, opposed to the content itself, I think I’ll gain more perspective on how health and diet want to be portrayed in the media and the different avenues they take to achieve that perception.

 The first piece of online content I analyzed was this WebMD article. I would categorize this under “news” for a few reasons.

The general tone of the piece is very neutral. Reading through the article, it isn’t trying to persuade us into trying the diet or tell us how awful it is, simply to inform us of what goes into partaking in the diet and its effects on your health. The piece is credible in my eyes because for one they list their sources that they reference at the bottom of the article. One scroll down and you’ll be able to see the medical journal in which they were referencing. I also want to make it point to add to the fact that in the article itself, they are quoting and paraphrasing the medical journal. Referring back to the research that was made and the conclusions that were found. This piece to me seems very reliable and overall. It falls under the news category because it’s informing the user in a neutral and informative tone that shows no real obvious bias. I think that this is an excellent way to inform users about the diet, giving them all the information and facts before trying to sell it to us like this, “cure-all” fad diet that so many have before. It portrays the diet as having several benefits (that often comes when you make a large change in your daily diet) but is very realistic with its portrayal, even stating that it may not work for everyone.

   The second piece of online content that I felt fell into the “news” category was an article by the BBC titled as, “Why is intermittent Fasting So Popular?” I thought this to be very interesting because, while the article’s subject is around my topic, it isn’t particularly subjecting the topic, rather questioning its popularity.

The article explains why the diet is so popular, elaborating on people’s love for simplicity and rules. The overall tone of the article was very back and forth. While I still believe this falls under the news category, because of the explanatory voice and the sources used, I will say it has some potential to possibly disinformation people. As explained in this Slate article, the average person RARELY makes it to the end of the article.

This piece is reliable to me because, if scrolling to the bottom, you’ll see a little link, ladled, “Why you can trust BBC News.”

Upon clicking this we are taken to another article, explaining HOW

BBC News is a trustworthy news reference. After reading this article, I felt extremely confident about the choice I made for the second news article. It takes a comprehensive view of people and their habits and breaks down why the diet may not be for everyone. It doesn’t dive into why or how the diet works, because that isn’t what the article is about.

     The first opinion piece I wish to link is a blog post a friend of mine sent me when I told her that I was writing about intermittent fasting. Reading through it, I found it to be the perfect piece to link to this post. The Skinny Confidential blog post follows Lauryn Evarts while she tells us about her experience intermittent fasting.

She explains which eating schedule she prefers, whether or not she prefers to workout while fasting, as well as the things she enjoys eating in the window of time that she can. It would be easy to write this post off as a non-reliable source, however, the girl did her homework.

Every opinion she had, was backed up by a reference to either a medical study done on the diet, or quoted by a doctor who spoke of the subject. While the piece is still a heavy opinion piece, it’s giving us a perspective on her experience with the diet, I will say she was very well informed. My only negative comment would be that, like many other posts regarding fad diets, it painted this almost perfect picture of the diet. Nowhere in the article does she mention struggling with the new diet schedule or working out while fasting. The light hardheartedness and bullet points of all the benefits paint intermittent fasting as though all you have to do is not eat.

(Which if we refer back to the WebMD article, we know isn’t true.) This, unfortunately, is the reality of media and diets. For every one news article I find speaking with credible sources, I find three opinion pieces that paint the diet as though it’s the best new diet since cigarettes.

     The final piece I wish to talk about is an Insider interview with celebrity trainer, Camila Goodis, who stated that “Intermittent fasting is bad for weight loss.”

From the title, we can see that this is an objective opinion piece. Reading through the article we gain a perspective from this trainer, who believes that eating every two hours is the preferred way to go. Now, this is a conflict of interest. We just read three articles that rave about the results of eating in a specific time slot, only after fasting for a specific number of hours. This piece, to me, is credible because the source, Camila Goodis is a trustworthy source. While reading the article, I could feel what she was saying, how she feels that many people who do fast on this diet, often don’t know all the information and fast incorrectly. While it is obvious that this is an opinion piece, I do think it should go into consideration whenever looking at this diet from a media standpoint. I chose this article to present because it shows the other side of the spectrum. Throughout this post, you’ve read about all the great benefits and how great intermittent fasting makes you feel. I was happy that I was able to find this article to show the other side of the coin and widen the scope of what we were gaining from intermittent fasting.