Digital diets and adolescent nutrition in Nigeria and the influence of social media on emerging noncommunicable disease risks

The rapid digitalisation of youth culture has transformed the food environment in Nigeria, where social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube increasingly shape adolescents’ dietary preferences and lifestyle aspirations. These exposures may reinforce unhealthy food preferences, body-image pressures, and nutrition misinformation. This narrative review synthesises current evidence on the influence of social media on dietary behaviours and NR-NCD risk among Nigerian adolescents, emphasising behavioural, psychosocial, and policy implications. This structured narrative review searched PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar, and African Journals Online, supplemented by a separate ResearchGate search for grey literature, for literature published between 2015 and 2025 on adolescents aged 10–19 years, social media exposure, dietary behaviour, digital food marketing, body image, nutrition misinformation, and NR-NCD risk in Nigeria or comparable Sub-Saharan African settings. Available evidence suggests that social media may function as a digital food environment in which influencer marketing, peer validation, and algorithmic exposure are associated with greater consumption of ultra-processed, calorie-dense foods. Repeated exposure appears to reinforce unhealthy dietary norms, while body-image ideals and misinformation are associated with disordered eating risk. Nonetheless, social media also offers potential for nutrition education and digital health promotion through culturally sensitive and youth-centred approaches. Social media simultaneously poses risks and opportunities for adolescent nutrition in Nigeria. Effective interventions require regulatory oversight of online food marketing, integration of media literacy into school curricula, and cross-sectoral collaboration to harness digital platforms for nutrition promotion.