It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Tuesday, May 05, 2026
‘Fitspiration’ posts may do more harm than good for young adults – international study, led by Olympian, suggests
Researchers call for caution viewing this social media content as it can lead to unhelpful comparisons, unhealthy dieting and exercise, plus negative self-esteem
Social media is filled with posts about fitness and healthy eating aiming to inspire and encourage better lifestyles. However, out today, a new large review study led by an Olympic athlete reveals that this seemingly motivational content can sometimes have unexpected negative impacts on the health and wellbeing of young adults.
Findings, published in the peer-reviewed journal Health Communication, suggest that even short-term exposure to these posts can have unhealthy consequences, leaving the viewers with reduced self-esteem, feeling unhappy about their looks and potentially having unhealthy motivations around their health and wellbeing.
The outcomes follow an extensive analysis of 26 studies involving 6,111 individuals aged 18 to 33 years across seven countries, examining how exposure to ‘fitspiration’ content on social media – posts promoting exercise, healthy eating and idealised, toned bodies – affects health-related outcomes.
The research was led by Dr Valerie Gruest, a Guatemalan swimmer who competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics. Dr Gruest is now completing a Ph.D. in the Media, Technology, and Society doctoral program at Northwestern University, in Illinois. She has carried out the paper alongside Dr Nathan Walter, an Associate Professor at the university’s School of Communication.
“Fitspiration content is often framed as positive and health-focused, but our findings suggest it may be more harmful than beneficial for some young adults,” says Dr Gruest, whose research interests focus on how new media shapes attitudes and behaviors. “Even brief exposure can trigger harmful comparisons and reinforce unrealistic body standards, which may undermine self-esteem and encourage more extreme or unsustainable approaches to diet and exercise.”
Social media use has grown rapidly in recent years, with most young adults now regular users. While these platforms can support connection and self-expression, they can also expose users to idealised standards that encourage comparison and may affect mental health. Fitspiration – often shortened to ‘fitspo’ – is one example of content that appears beneficial but may carry risks.
With nearly 100 million posts using hashtags such as #fitspiration and #fitspo – and billions of views across platforms like Instagram and TikTok – many young adults are frequently exposed to this content, whether intentionally or not. Despite its popularity, its impact on health and wellbeing remains relatively underexplored.
“I’ve been fascinated by fitspiration content since my time as an athlete, where it was often held up in elite training environments as the ideal. But even then, I knew those body standards didn’t reflect the reality of training for performance, especially when following a balanced, sustainable diet, even while training for multiple hours a day,” explains Dr Gruest.
“That curiosity has stayed with me as a researcher. I want to better understand how this kind of content is actually impacting people.”
To investigate the issue further, Drs Gruest and Walter examined data from experimental studies published between 2015 and 2023, mainly in the United States, with others from the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Ireland, Italy and New Zealand. Participants were typically shown 10 to 100 fitspiration images, or videos, and their behavioural and psychological outcomes were compared with those exposed to non-fitspiration content.
Statistical analysis showed that exposure to fitspiration content led to increased social comparison, poorer body image, more negative emotions, and stronger – sometimes unrealistic – dieting and exercise motivations. These patterns were broadly consistent across gender, age and body mass index, suggesting that the effects may extend beyond the groups most commonly studied, such as young women.
“While I expected some negative effects, I was struck by just how strong and consistent they were,” Dr Gruest states.
“The findings show a pretty concerning pattern, as this kind of exposure can harm both psychological well-being and health behaviours, which makes it all the more important that we keep examining its impact.”
Dr Walter, whose research specialism concerns the power of strategic storytelling, correction of misinformation, concludes: “This research adds to the growing conversation about the impact of social media on young people’s health and emotional wellbeing, and the role of emotion and affect in social influence.
“Unlike traditional media, fitspiration delivers a constant stream of highly curated and idealised images, meaning young adults are likely to be repeatedly exposed to this content in their everyday lives. As its popularity grows, understanding the effects of this ongoing exposure will be key to supporting healthier engagement in the future.”
While a key strength of this analysis is that it includes studies from multiple countries, the authors note some limitations. Participants were largely from developed countries and predominantly women, and reporting on factors such as race, ethnicity and body composition was inconsistent, making it difficult to understand how these effects may vary across more diverse populations.
An update to Canadian guidance on screening for high-risk drinking and alcohol use provides streamlined recommendations in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) that authors hope will make it easier for health care professionals to talk to patients about alcohol usehttps://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.251759.
“Excessive alcohol use frequently underlies many reasons people see their doctor, such as poor sleep or anxiety, but this explanation routinely goes undetected in health care settings,” says Dr. Evan Wood, co-chair of the guideline writing committee and an addiction medicine specialist at the British Columbia Centre on Substance Use and the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC. “These updated recommendations aim to support clinicians with a practical approach to initiating conversations about alcohol use and identifying those with potential problems earlier so patients can receive factual advice and care when needed.”
This guideline is an evidence-based update by the Canadian Research Initiative in Substance Matters (CRISM), funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, to screening recommendations from an earlier CRISM guideline published in 2023. Research showed many previously recommended tools were impractical and not effective at detecting problematic alcohol use.
The 5 screening recommendations in the guideline update are aimed at helping primary care clinicians and medical professionals in emergency departments and medical wards counsel youth (aged 12 to 25) and adults who may have undiagnosed alcohol problems.
“We developed 5 recommendations to identify and address both risky alcohol consumption and more serious alcohol-related problems, recognizing that patients may exhibit diverse patterns of drinking and risk,” says Dr. Wood. “We hope the easy-to-use tables with tips on how to reduce alcohol use and more will help clinicians focus on patients’ unique needs, allowing them to save time when circumstances allow while focusing on those with identified alcohol problems.”
A team of researchers, clinicians, and people with lived and living experience of substance use from across Canada helped develop the national guideline.
“Despite the burden of alcohol-related harms, there remains a gap between what we know is effective intervention and treatment and the care many patients actually receive,” says Dr. Jürgen Rehm, co-chair of the guideline writing committee and senior scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). “Improving screening in primary care can help intervene in circumstances of excessive drinking and help identify alcohol problems earlier and connect people with effective treatments and supports.”
The authors recommend that screening for alcohol use should be part of conversations between health care providers and patients about the health risks and harms of psychoactive substances overall.
“Screening patients for the use of alcohol and other substances is important, but to be effective, a positive screen needs follow-up with intervention,” write Drs. Shannon Charlebois, medical editor, CMAJ, and Shawn Kelly, a pediatrician and addictions medicine specialist at the University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario. “This is particularly important for youth, because the earlier substance use starts, the higher the risk of future misuse and addiction.”
They note that even a short conversation can make a difference, and that anyone who works with adolescents can have an impact.
“Increasingly, addiction medicine experts agree that asking about features of substance withdrawal during a brief intervention can increase its efficacy, because doing so can identify teens for whom substance use is already a substantial problem and prompt appropriate intervention,” write Drs. Charlebois and Kelly.
Long‐term monitoring of several Finnish lake areas demonstrates that autumn conditions indirectly govern winter thermal regimes.
Climate change undoubtedly affects lakes and the functioning of their ecosystems, but seasonal impacts are not always straightforward. An international team of researchers from York University in Canada, the Finnish Environment Institute and the University of Eastern Finland in Joensuu investigated how lake autumn surface warming is associated with winter under‐ice temperatures and ice phenology. The results were published in Water Resources Research. The study synthesised 37–50 years of data since 1971 from dozens of Finnish lake sites that are located across the country.
Warm autumns delay lake freezing, but overall water temperatures in winter can become lower
There was a negative relationship between the timing of ice-on and under-ice bottom water temperatures. In warmer autumns, when lakes freeze later, bottom water temperatures are colder in winter compared to years with cooler autumns and earlier freeze-up. This is one of the main results of the study, and though it may sound counterintuitive, there is a logical explanation. When lakes remain ice-free longer in autumn, they continue to lose heat to the atmosphere. Without the insulating layer of ice cover, mixing continues and more heat escapes before winter begins. As a result, winter water temperatures are colder by the time ice eventually forms. Interestingly, a late ice-on date and an early ice-off date were associated with the subsequent maximum surface water temperatures in summer, however, under-ice bottom water temperatures had no correlation.
Autumn surface waters have become warmer due to climate change
The lake areas included in the study had become warmer during the monitoring period. The researchers found that autumn surface water temperatures had risen by an average of 1.85 °C, and lake freezing had been delayed by 20 days. Strong winds and the amount of shortwave radiation from the sun in autumn, as well as large lake size, were linked to colder under-ice bottom water temperatures.
Until now, the role of autumn in the limnology of dimictic lakes, i.e., lakes that undergo a complete cycle twice a year, has not been properly investigated. Dimictic lakes are typical in many areas of the boreal climate zone, and almost all Finnish lakes are dimictic. The present study is the first large-scale, multi-lake analysis using long-term time series to demonstrate the influence of autumn on lake thermal structure.
“We are only now beginning to understand the significant importance of autumn conditions for northern temperate lakes. Our recent findings should be taken into account in limnological research and climate change impact projections,” say Faith Ferrato, MSc,Dr Joshua Culpepper and Professor Sapna Sharma from York University.
“Water temperature is a key factor that determines the biology of ectothermic aquatic organisms. In very cold water, many organisms, from plankton to fish, often behave more passively. At the same time, temperature has significant effects on, for example, the physiology of organisms,” says Raine Kortet, Professor of Aquatic Ecology at the University of Eastern Finland.
“This study also highlights the importance of long-term hydrological monitoring data when assessing the impacts of climate change on lake hydrology and biology,” adds Merja Pulkkanen, Team Manager at the Finnish Environment Institute.
Wind turbines supply a particularly large amount of electricity in winter – precisely when demand is high. Nevertheless, expansion is stagnating in many regions of Europe. One of the main reasons is that wind turbines can clash with local scenic landscape and are therefore met with local opposition.
Researchers at ETH Zurich and the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have systematically analysed this conflict at the European level. Under the direction of Russell McKenna, Professor of Energy System Analysis at ETH Zurich and Lab Head at PSI, they examined how people perceive landscape beauty and how this aspect can be incorporated into wind energy planning.
“Our aim was to better understand the conflict between energy expansion and social acceptance,” says Ruihong Chen, a doctoral student in McKenna’s group and first author of the study recently published in the journal Energy and AI.
How landscape beauty can be measured
“Beauty is, of course, a highly subjective concept,” Chen adds. In light of this, the researchers trained a machine-learning model using crowdsourced data from Great Britain. The dataset comprises over 200,000 landscape images that users have rated on a scale of 1 to 10.
The model showed the researchers which landscape features are most strongly associated with perceived beauty. Decisive factors include, for example, the type of land use (e.g. glacial and rocky terrains are classified as most beautiful, while agricultural land and settlement areas rank lowest), the natural quality of the landscape, proximity to water bodies and the amount of sunlight.
In the next step, the researchers applied the model to the whole of Europe. “So far, analyses of this kind have only been carried out for individual countries,” says Chen. Now, for the first time, a machine-learning-based map has been produced showing which regions in Europe are considered particularly beautiful and scenic.
Less wind energy – but hardly higher costs
The researchers linked their analysis of landscape quality to a wind energy model. This enabled them to investigate, for the first time, how protecting particularly beautiful landscapes affects wind energy on a large scale.
The result: excluding especially beautiful and scenic landscapes across Europe would substantially reduce the potential for wind energy. However, the cost per unit of electricity generated would remain close to the European average.
The reason is that suitable locations with strong, consistent winds that are easily accessible – for example, thanks to existing infrastructure or proximity to the electricity grid – are often outside areas rated as particularly beautiful. A larger share of electricity production could take place there.
The conflict is evident on the ground
However, this pan-European approach masks conflicts at the regional level, where notable differences exist. Chen explains: “Especially in hotspots like the Alpine region or Norway, excluding beautiful landscapes would significantly reduce wind power potential.”
When good locations are eliminated, generation costs rise substantially because the remaining sites tend to be less efficient. “On a regional level, unfortunately, good wind conditions can coincide with beautiful landscapes,” says Chen. Switzerland and the Alps exemplify this conflict: despite strong wind resources, the potential has been underutilised mainly due to landscape conservation concerns.
Chen adds: "Broad European or national perspectives are insufficient for wind power planning. Our analysis demonstrates that planning must be highly localised to effectively address local conflicts.”
How tensions can be defused
Different methods exist to defuse conflicts, one of which is known as micro-siting. This technique involves carefully positioning each wind turbine, allowing scenic areas to be preserved without automatic exclusion.
“Wind turbines can, for example, be located behind an edge of the terrain or closer to existing infrastructure such as power lines,” says Chen. This significantly reduces the visual impact on the landscape.
An adapted design could also help make wind turbines less conspicuous and better blend into the landscape. “Bundling installations with existing infrastructure is probably the most socially acceptable way,” says Chen.
First attempt subject to limitations
The study is a first attempt at predicting landscape scenic value on a European scale with high spatial resolution and is subject to certain limitations. As the training dataset is biased towards land cover in Great Britain, not all types of European land cover are well represented.
Further improvements could focus on enriching the training data with locations in other European countries. “For example, we could incorporate social media data to make it even more accurate and robust,” says Chen.
The findings can already be applied in other areas; for example, in the planning of alpine solar plants, grid expansion or other infrastructure projects. In any case, the study provides an approach to advancing the energy transition without losing sight of the landscape.
Researchers from the Jülich Research Centre in Germany were also involved in this study.
The genomes of phages – viruses that infect bacteria – are largely composed of “dark matter”: genes that encode proteins whose functions remain unknown. Less than four years ago, a team led by Prof. Rotem Sorek at the Weizmann Institute of Science identified a new type of protein within this viral dark matter and dubbed it a “sponge.” Viral sponge proteins are porous and specialize in trapping molecules within deep pockets – much like a sponge that absorbs water. For phages, however, this sponge serves as a weapon: It traps communication molecules that are essential to bacterial immune systems, allowing the phage to take control of the bacterium and multiply inside it unhindered.
Until recently, very few sponge proteins had been found. Their genetic sequences differ greatly from one another, making them difficult to detect. Now, using an innovative research approach that combines artificial intelligence with experimental biology, researchers in Sorek’s lab have uncovered new families of sponge proteins that disrupt immune communication in bacteria. The findings, published in Science, reveal how viruses silence the immune system’s alarm signals, and shed light on the importance of communication disruption in the billion-year-long war between viruses and bacteria.
In the new study, the researchers examined the structures of sponge proteins identified so far and noticed a recurring architectural pattern that could be used to discover new proteins of this type. “They are all small, composed of several identical subunits and contain deep pockets,” explains Sorek. “These pockets carry a positive electrical charge, allowing them to absorb immune alarm molecules, which are typically negatively charged.”
Insights like these used to have limited practical value, but the AI revolution has changed that. “We realized that with advanced AI tools such as Google’s AlphaFold, we could scan an enormous number of proteins and search for those with positively charged pockets capable of trapping immune molecules,” says Dr. Nitzan Tal, who led the new study in Sorek’s lab. “This allowed us to reveal new functions of phage proteins based solely on their structure.”
The scientists scanned a database of 32 million genes encoding phage proteins, from 2 million phage genomes, and used AlphaFold to predict their three-dimensional structures. “We found more than 120 candidates whose structures matched our criteria, and moved on to experimental testing,” says Tal.
The researchers then tested the effectiveness of each candidate against five bacterial immune systems, using a new method developed by research student Jeremy Garb in Sorek’s lab. The approach enabled the team to perform all the tests simultaneously rather than conducting hundreds of separate experiments. These experiments revealed a new family of sponge proteins that the researchers named Lockin. The AI model predicted that these proteins should consist of six identical subunits arranged in a circular structure resembling flower petals. In collaboration with Prof. Philip J. Kranzusch’s team at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, the researchers determined the structure of one family member using X-ray crystallography, confirming the prediction and deciphering exactly how the immune alarm molecule is captured.
“The huge database of viral proteins we analyzed was mostly obtained from sequencing environmental DNA samples that include a large mixture of phages,” says Sorek. “This allowed us to discover the Lockin proteins, which appeared in hundreds of phages that have never been isolated in the lab.”
Along with AI-based predictions, the researchers used additional innovative strategies. “Romi Hadary, another research student in my lab, noticed that genes that encoded known sponge proteins tend to be fused together in phage genomes,” explains Sorek. “This insight allowed us to identify an additional family of sponge proteins, called Sequestin, based on the fact that their genes are fused to those of known sponges. It goes to show that, even in the age of artificial intelligence, there is still great value in the keen observations of human scientists.”
Yet another protein family discovered in the study, called Acb5, initially puzzled the researchers. “These proteins were very similar to sponge proteins, but we discovered that they not only trap alarm molecules – they also cut them,” says Tal. “This was surprising because they didn’t have the structural features typical of molecular cutting tools. This discovery shows how systematic structural scanning can overturn previous scientific assumptions.”
The protein families identified in this study appear in the genomes of thousands of different phages in nature. The researchers also found that a single phage can carry a broad arsenal of sponges and enzymes that neutralize immune alarm molecules. Together, these findings show that proteins disrupting immune communication give phages a significant advantage in their arms race with bacteria.
“It’s not yet known whether viruses that infect plants, animals and humans also use sponge proteins, but the computational and experimental approach we developed makes it possible to test this,” adds Sorek. “If they do, sponge proteins could become targets for the development of antiviral therapies in the future. Our discovery method doesn’t require prior knowledge of protein function, and it doesn’t rely on spotting similarities in genetic sequences or on growing viruses in the lab. It is therefore a powerful tool for uncovering additional immune-related proteins that share structural patterns.”
Also participating in the study were: Dr. Ilya Osterman, Dr. Gil Amitai, Erez Yirmiya, Dr. Nathalie Béchon, Dr. Dina Hochhauser and Barak Madhala from Weizmann’s Molecular Genetics Department; Renee B. Chang and Miguel López Rivera from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA; Roy Jacobson from Weizmann’s Plant and Environmental Sciences Department; Dr. Moshe Goldsmith from Weizmann’s Biomolecular Sciences Department; and Dr. Tanita Wein from Weizmann’s Systems Immunology Department.
Prof. Rotem Sorek’s research is supported by Magnus Konow in honor of his mother Olga Konow Rappaport.
Findings from A*STAR IDL, NTU Singapore, and NUS provide actionable design principles for more durable phage cocktails, supporting global efforts to develop new countermeasures against drug-resistant infections.
SINGAPORE – Scientists from A*STAR Infectious Diseases Labs (A*STAR IDL), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore’s Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (LKCMedicine), the National University of Singapore (NUS), and international collaborators have uncovered how Mycobacterium abscessus – a bacterium that causes serious lung infections – can evade bacteriophage (phage) therapy, and demonstrated a combination strategy to overcome this resistance, offering a pathway towards more effective and durable treatments. The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is an escalating health challenge that is expected to place growing strain on healthcare systems worldwide. As AMR continues to erode the effectiveness of existing antibiotics – with one in six bacterial infections worldwide now resistant to antibiotics – scientists are accelerating efforts to develop new countermeasures such as phage therapy, which uses viruses to target bacteria. These efforts are important for strengthening global health and infectious disease preparedness.
Understanding How Bacteria Adapt to Survive Treatment
M. abscessus infections are challenging to treat due to their intrinsic resistance to many antibiotics and are increasingly recognised as a significant public health threat.
The researchers found that “smooth” strains of M. abscessus, which are more commonly observed in Asia, respond to phage therapy by switching to a “rough” form, both in the laboratory and pre-clinical models. This transition is linked to mutations in genes responsible for producing glycopeptidolipids, which shape the bacteria’s outer surface.
In other cases, the bacteria resisted phage attack without changing form, instead developing mutations in different surface‑related genes, revealing multiple pathways to resistance.
The team uncovered this resistance mechanism while generating phage‑resistant bacterial mutants to investigate phage‑bacteria interactions.
“These findings reveal an important challenge in developing phage‑based therapies. Although phages can effectively eliminate bacteria, they may also inadvertently make infections more difficult to treat, as seen in the ‘rough’ form,” explained Professor Pablo Bifani, senior author and scientist at LKCMedicine.
Designing More Effective Phage Treatments to Treat AMR Infections
To address this, the team developed a combination therapy targeting both the original “smooth” bacteria and the emerging “rough” variants. This two‑pronged approach proved more effective than a single-phage treatment, pointing toward more robust and longer‑lasting phage therapies for patients.
“What started as a straightforward goal: finding phages that can target M. abscessus smooth strains, led us to the discovery of a clinically relevant resistance mechanism,” said Dr Liew Jun Hao, first author and scientist at A*STAR IDL.
“Phage therapy holds great promise as an alternative treatment for AMR infections, and our findings show that how these treatments are designed is critical. By identifying these ‘escape states’, our study underscores the need for the field to systematically account for bacterial adaptation, so that strategies to counter phage resistance can be built into therapies from the outset, as the threat of AMR continues to grow.”
Associate Professor Albert Yick Hou Lim, Senior Consultant in Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, who was not part of the study team, said: “In clinical settings, infections caused by M. abscessus are challenging to treat due to limited effective therapeutic options. These findings highlight the importance of anticipating how bacteria may respond to treatment. Strategies that account for such adaptive responses, including combination phage therapies, may enhance treatment durability, improve patient outcomes, and better inform clinical management of these complex infections.”
Advancing Novel Therapeutics and Diagnostics Against AMR
By revealing how phage resistance happens, and how it can be mitigated, this study strengthens the ongoing efforts to develop novel therapeutics against AMR.
The findings may also inform future diagnostic and monitoring approaches, such as tracking bacterial form changes and resistance-associated mutations. This could help clinicians tailor treatments and adjust therapeutic strategies more responsively.
Beyond immediate clinical applications, understanding how bacteria evolve under therapeutic pressure is important for infectious disease preparedness. Such insights can inform the design of new therapies that remain effective even as pathogens adapt.
The study contributes to Singapore’s efforts to strengthen capabilities in infectious diseases research and develop solutions to address emerging global health challenges.
About the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR)
The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) is Singapore's lead public sector R&D agency. Through open innovation, we collaborate with our partners in both the public and private sectors to benefit the economy and society. As a Science and Technology Organisation, A*STAR bridges the gap between academia and industry. Our research creates economic growth and jobs for Singapore, and enhances lives by improving societal outcomes in healthcare, urban living, and sustainability. A*STAR plays a key role in nurturing scientific talent and leaders for the wider research community and industry. A*STAR’s R&D activities span biomedical sciences to physical sciences and engineering, with research entities primarily located in Biopolis and Fusionopolis. For ongoing news, visit www.a-star.edu.sg.
About A*STAR Infectious Diseases Labs (A*STAR IDL)
A*STAR Infectious Diseases Labs (A*STAR IDL) was established in April 2021 with a mission to be a leading research institute of infectious diseases in antimicrobial resistance, respiratory and vector-borne diseases. A*STAR IDL brings together infectious diseases expertise from across multiple disciplines to drive cutting edge translational infectious diseases research to contribute to Singapore’s national preparedness and defence against the threat of emerging infections. Building upon a robust foundation of our strong biomedical research capabilities and complemented by our globally connected scientific network, A*STAR IDL aims to focus on innovative technologies in infectious disease detection, intervention and prevention with a pathway to impact on health and economic outcomes. https://www.a-star.edu.sg/idlabs
