Plant-Based Videos Among Most Popular Trends On TikTok

 A new report has been released by mobile comparison site Money.co.uk, revealing which diets are receiving the most views on the social channel.

The video-sharing app TikTok has become hugely popular in the past year, with millions of people using the app for both their healthy eating and workout inspiration – in fact, there have been 27.6 billion views of videos with the hashtag ‘workout’ and 1.9 billion views of videos tagged with #diet. 

The report proves that there is a strong appetite for vegan diet content among the TikTok users, with videos tagged with #vegandiet and #plantbaseddiet both making the top 15 trending diet videos on the social media platform. Videos tagged with #plantbaseddiet have been viewed over 29.1 million times, making them the 7th most popular diet video on TikTok, whereas #vegandiet videos have clocked up over 7 million views (making them 15th most popular).

The videos tagged with #plantbaseddiet cover a range of topics, but most show quick plant-based cooking guides, vegan recipes and how to make delicious plant-based dishes. These videos include healthy vegan salads, vegan smoothie and sandwich ideas, but also showcase some 'junk' plant-based dishes including vegan breakfast burgers, vegan burritos and vegan cookies. Other videos show some easy brand swaps you can introduce to your shopping list in order to go more plant-based (e.g. with products from Violife and Just Egg). There are also videos under the hashtag which show TikTok users sharing their reasons for choosing a plant-based lifestyle as well as 'how to' videos for things like pressing tofu and using egg substitutes in cooking.

TikTok videos with just a general #vegan tag (i.e. not just ones limited to a diet specifically) have clocked up 7.5 billion views, and include vegan recipes but also vegan beauty product reviews as well as people discussing their individual opinions and thoughts on the pros and cons of veganism.

Popular vegan food tags for TikTok videos include #veganjunkfood (over 8.9 million views), #vegandesserts (29 million views) and #vegancoffee with over 500,000 views.

The most popular diet videos that people are looking at on TikTok are related to the Keto diet – which prioritises foods high in fats but low in carbohydrates (especially refined carbs like sugar). TikToks tagged with #ketodiet show you how to make keto-friendly dishes , and most tend to rely heavily on cheese and bacon as the principal ingredients. However, videos tagged with #veganketo have nearly half a million views (over 480,000) and include ways to make plant-based 'chaffles' (a.k.a. waffles made from cheese) as well as tasty high protein, low carb vegan burritos, salad bowls and desserts. 

 The second most popular TikTok for diet inspiration (with over 378 million views) are videos that give tips on how to eat gluten-free. As gluten is in flour, these videos are providing inspiration for lots of gluten-free baking, particularly for brownie, bread and cookie recipes.

Videos that advise on intermittent fasting are the third most watched on TikTok with 214 million views. Intermittent fasting is more about when you eat, rather than what you eat, and so is typically combined with other diets. The TikToks with this tag typically show users sharing their meal plans for the day or week ahead.