WASHINGTON (7News) — A new study shows that AI chatbots more often than not fail teenagers when it comes to dietary and nutrition advice.
Researchers found several popular chatbots created meal plans for adolescents that were too low in calories and carbohydrates and too high in protein and fat. On average, the AI plans came in nearly 700 calories a day below a dietitian’s plan.
Experts said that’s problematic because teens need those macro- and micro-nutrients, as their brains and bodies are still growing. And restrictive diets can do real harm and create bad future habits.
“Longer-term impacts for using more restrictive diets that are developed by AI would be longer-term bone losses in their later years. And bones aren’t only necessarily what we think of as like skeletal, but our teeth, you know, our ligaments. And a lot of times when we’re talking to people, you know, you might lose your teeth at a younger age,” said Children’s National Hospital dietitian and nutritionist, Christy Bock. “Short-term-wise, you know, when we don’t have certain nutrients on a daily basis, it just makes it more difficult for us to think, to learn, for the body process to do what it needs to do.”
Plus AI has no clinical training.
“I think the technology with AI, of course, does have a lot of great capacity,” said Christy Bock, dietitian and nutritionist with Children’s National Hospital. “However, there isn’t any validated tool that’s being established within that paradigm. So many of the times when you’re seeing anyone within healthcare or other individuals with technical or clinical training, you have the assurance that you’re being given validated information.”
One other important note is that relationship with a dietitian, who can tell you where you’re making progress and make adjustments if any issues arise.
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Once you have your nutrition guidelines set by a licensed dietitian, ask AI to help you come up with meals.
Maggie Tagari, a dietitian with MedStar Health, said there are some things AI just isn’t doing – like “motivational interviewing.”
“which is something that registered dietitians are trained in, and that is really what allows the patient to start thinking through, how can I overcome my barriers? Why is this even important to me? What’s going to like motivate me to continue doing this? And then when something doesn’t go wrong, or it doesn’t go right, then what does it look like to try again? So that relationship is super important, that AI just really can’t fill,” said Tagare.
She says a dietitian will consider the basics, age, weight, gender, goals, etc., but also recent lab work, medications, social determinants of health, access to food, who you live with, how you are supporting one another to prepare meals, and your usual patterns. That’s not something AI is really attuned to yet.
“I think one other thing I would add is what our teenagers are seeing around other people, what they’re doing, and their caregivers are part of that equation. So if we want to encourage our teenagers to have a healthy body image and to eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, we have to do that ourselves and talk about it. So, what does our home environment look like? Are we offering these foods? Are we eating them together? Are we making sure that they’re not skipping meals, going off to school? So that’s another part that we have a responsibility to take care of our own family members and the people that we care for in that way,” said Tagare.
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