雅思阅读 046 · Why Online Fitness Content Can Be Dangerous
改编自 Scientific American（Allison Parshall, 2026）。题型：选择题 + T/F/NG + 填空。难度：较难（Passage 3，约 900 词）。
🎧 课文朗读音频（约 1 分钟）
正文 Passage
On TikTok and Instagram, fitness content is everywhere. Algorithms serve users glossy videos featuring toned bodies, gym routines and health food endorsements.
"Fitspiration" — an amalgam of "fitness" and "inspiration" — is one of the Internet's oldest enduring types of content, with roots in the "thinspiration" world of online eating disorder communities.
Researchers have accumulated evidence that this imagery is detrimental to users' mental health and self-image and may encourage disordered eating.
Valerie Gruest, who studies the Internet's effect on body image at Northwestern University, is a former Olympic swimmer who competed for Guatemala at the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
"This topic is so dear to my heart, not only as a researcher but also as an athlete," Gruest says. She grew up exposed to a lot of fitness content in an athletic environment that already had an "intense eating disorder culture." After injuries ended her career, she decided to become a researcher studying how this social media content operates.
In a meta-analysis published in Health Communication, she examined the mental health effects of a decade's worth of research on fitspiration content.
The origins of fitspiration
"Fitspiration" content has always emerged very organically on social media feeds. This is content that promotes a more active lifestyle but, in the background, motivates people to aspire to a very thin, very fit body ideal — which, in a lot of cases, is very unattainable.
There is often an implicit or explicit invitation for users to engage with disordered eating and exercising practices in order to achieve those standards.
This content has origins dating way back to the rise of the web, with roots in pro-eating-disorder websites. People with eating disorders would share their experiences as a way of motivating others to achieve extreme body standards through imagery of emaciated bodies.
They transitioned into spaces like Tumblr and Pinterest, and this is where "thinspiration" and "thinspo" originated through hashtags. A lot of these platforms took action, cancelling accounts that were related to thinspiration. That's where fitspiration started to emerge.
The research findings
The scientific literature on fitspiration content has focused primarily on trying to understand the content itself and what the messaging looks like. But there are also some experimental studies on the general impact of fitspiration content.
Gruest's meta-analysis found that exposure to such content was pretty consistently negative. It prompted people to compare themselves with the people portrayed, negative self-perceptions increased, and positive feelings decreased. They also saw an increase in diet and exercise motivation.
What makes fitspiration very unique and concerning is that it's supposed to motivate healthier lifestyles, but it's doing that in order to attain a particular body standard. And that's where the issue comes in. It's not promoting health. The content encourages you to be extremely conscious of what you eat with very, very specific requirements.
"A lot of the exercise regimens that are promoted are extreme measures, featuring a lot of repetition and high intensity that your body has to be prepared for," Gruest says. "I know what it takes to reach that elite level of training, and that's not something that's healthy for an average person."
The unattainable standard
When people are engaging with fitspiration content, it becomes this cycle: it's motivating me to pursue these standards, but then nothing I do gets me that body standard. And it creates a lot of frustration.
What makes this body standard so hard to attain is that you have to be pretty lean, and on top of that, build muscle. And from the elite athlete perspective, it takes a lot to build muscle.
"A lot of the people I interviewed describe the process as 'just never ending,'" Gruest says. "You think you've achieved one part, but then you're exposed to another post, and then it reminds you that there are other things you need to change about yourself."
Effects on young users
The average young user identifies fitness content as one of the primary content types they're exposed to on a daily basis.
Only people who were in their late 20s had the maturity to say, "I don't want to be seeing that type of content. It doesn't make me feel good about myself."
Broadly, studies have shown that younger users are having more and more of a difficult time navigating these image-centric environments. A lot of the research on body image and media psychology has found that exposure time on social media very much correlates with body image issues and disordered eating tendencies.
题目 Questions
Questions 1-4: Choose the correct letter.
1. Where did fitspiration content originate?
- A. on TikTok and Instagram
- B. in pro-eating-disorder websites
- C. in Olympic training camps
- D. in gyms
2. Gruest competed in the 2016 Olympics for which country?
- A. the United States
- B. Guatemala
- C. Canada
- D. Brazil
3. What did the meta-analysis find about fitspiration content?
- A. it consistently improves mental health
- B. it consistently has negative effects
- C. it has no effect on body image
- D. it only affects young people
4. According to Gruest, elite-level training regimens are:
- A. suitable for average people
- B. not healthy for average people
- C. easy to follow
- D. based on rest and recovery
Questions 5-8: T/F/NG
5. Fitspiration content promotes a very attainable body ideal.
6. Gruest was a former Olympic swimmer.
7. Exposure to fitspiration content increases positive feelings.
8. Younger users have more difficulty navigating image-centric environments.
Questions 9-13: Complete the notes. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS.
- "Fitspiration" is an amalgam of fitness and (9) ____________.
- Gruest's meta-analysis was published in the journal (10) ____________.
- The content encourages people to pursue a very thin, very (11) ____________ body ideal.
- People interviewed describe the process as "just (12) ____________."
- Social media exposure time correlates with body image issues and (13) ____________ tendencies.
答案 Answers
| 题号 | 答案 |
|---|---|
| 1 | B |
| 2 | B |
| 3 | B |
| 4 | B |
| 5 | FALSE (very unattainable) |
| 6 | TRUE |
| 7 | FALSE (positive feelings decreased) |
| 8 | TRUE |
| 9 | inspiration |
| 10 | Health Communication |
| 11 | fit |
| 12 | never ending |
| 13 | disordered eating |
核心词汇
fitspiration / body image / eating disorder / social media / meta-analysis / mental health / self-perception / Instagram / TikTok / disordered eating / influencer
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