Getting healthier apparently requires a lot of purchases. At least, that’s the impression your social media feed can leave. There’s always another supplement to take or coaching program to join, and a discount code to make it all a little more tempting.
New research from Pew Research Center shows how often wellness content comes with a promotion. Researchers analyzed more than half a million Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube posts from over 6,000 health and wellness influencers. Some 38 percent contained a sponsorship or another appeal to use a product, service, or subscription. Among posts directly discussing health and wellness, the share was nearly half.
You might follow a creator for their personality, recipes, or workout advice. But when those posts lead to product recommendations, you’re also a potential customer. At least according to the report, released Oct. 7, which examined posts published between February and April 2026. It found that 92 percent of the influencers included promotions at least occasionally, and around a third of them include ads in a majority of their posts.
Pew’s definition of a promotion includes disclosed sponsorships, product and service recommendations, and free resources such as workout guides. Creators promoting their own offerings can also qualify.
Credit: Screenshot: Pew Research Center
Promotions also appeared in 66 percent of posts about nonprescription medications and supplements, 56 percent about appearance, 56 percent about men’s health, and 52 percent each about nutrition and longevity. They were more frequent in posts from self-described dietitians and nutritionists; complementary, alternative, and integrative health professionals; authors; business owners; and coaches. Athletes and activists included them less frequently.
The commercial side is easy to spot, from a viewer’s point of view. Kayla Itsines (15 mil on Instagram) offers workout programs through the subscription-based Sweat app, while Joe Wicks (2.9 mil on YouTube) sells Body Coach app subscriptions featuring workouts and meal plans. Mari Llewellyn co-founded Bloom Nutrition, which sells “Greens & Superfoods” powders, and physician/podcast host Mark Hyman’s online store sells supplements and offerings such as his “10-Day Detox” program.
What’s actually in the wellness feed?
Just over half of the posts discussed healthy living, compared with about a third discussing medical issues. Fitness appeared in 25 percent, healthy habits in 20 percent, nutrition in 19 percent, and appearance in 14 percent. And if it feels like everyone is talking about protein; 42 percent of nutrition posts mentioned it directly. Thirty percent of posts didn’t discuss wellness at all, instead covering personal life or other subjects.
The report also complicates the idea that wellness influencers are simply nonexperts dispensing medical advice. Self-described healthcare professionals discussed medical conditions and treatments requiring professional involvement most frequently. Those topics appeared much less often in posts from creators who didn’t claim a medical background.
As I previously reported, “credential catfishing” involves fabricating the education, career, or status that signals authority online. Back in September, Mashable covered the story of influencer Angel Victoria Murdock who spent nearly two years documenting her supposed experience in Duke University’s Physician Assistant Program. Followers saw scrubs, medical notes, apparent Duke Health identification, and “get ready with me” videos for supposed rotations. She even posed in graduation attire outside Duke Chapel. But, spoiler alert: She had never attended the program. Murdock also promoted fashion and beauty products and participated in TikTok Shop’s affiliate program.
Even genuine experience has limits, as certified medical exercise specialist and personal trainer Courtney Babilya told the Associated Press in May. “We have to be careful with people who have an experience in one thing and suddenly become a ‘coach’ on that,” she cautioned.
You don’t even have to follow a wellness creator to encounter their recommendations. Earlier Pew research found that 40 percent of U.S. adults get health and wellness information from influencers or podcasts. Among those consumers, 67 percent mostly encountered it rather than searching for it.
Some viewers are tired of the pitches. In a recent Reddit thread titled “Too many ads,” one user wrote: “oh my god i love tiktok but im starting to get irritated that every video is either a regular ad, an undisclosed ad, a partnership, or a brand deal.”
A promotion doesn’t automatically make advice bad
Creators have bills to pay, too, and brand partnerships can help them keep making the content people follow them for. Plenty of viewers find that content useful: Pew’s earlier research found that 54 percent of people who get health and wellness information from influencers or podcasts said it helped them better understand how to be healthy.
But as viewers, it helps to be discerning about the advice we take. Disclosures are one thing to check: Look for a “Paid partnership” label, a clear #ad or #sponsored in the caption, or a disclosure within the video itself. You shouldn’t have to dig through someone’s profile or a pile of hashtags to find it. The Federal Trade Commission says influencers should clearly disclose brand relationships, including payments and free products, “even if you think your evaluations are unbiased.”
Platforms have their own requirements, too. Instagram requires a paid partnership label for branded content involving an exchange of value. TikTok requires its disclosure setting for promotional content, labeling posts “Paid partnership” or “Promotional content.” And YouTube requires creators to flag commercial relationships, which adds a disclosure at the beginning of the video.
Those requirements don’t guarantee that every promotion is labeled. And even a clearly disclosed partnership doesn’t tell you whether the health advice is sound. Sometimes the healthiest thing you can do for yourself — and your wallet — is let a discount code expire.
