Is Your Twitter Diet Killing You?

by Ct Kingston · View Comments

If you have a Twitter account and value your health I advise you read this closely.
If you don’t have a Twitter account, read it from far away. But please read it, this could save your life.

For decades, there’s been a dietary war that pits The Unhealthy vs. The Healthy. In America, citizens get fatter every year. This happens elsewhere too, but since I’m an American it’s my patriotic duty to not care about “elsewhere.”

Twitter_Food_Pyramid

If you’re on Twitter you can’t help but see food-oriented tweets pass through your stream.
Oftentimes, the only thing a person has to say that day revolves around their wish to eat a burrito. Or mad desire to drain a keg. Wishes and desires are one thing, but when the person takes action to consume these fatty substances, danger sets in. A staggering percentage of tweeters eat from a toxic menu. Have you ever seen anyone tweeting about a delicious carrot or the joy of drinking cold, calcium-enriched milk? Doubt it.Twitter_HotDogs
.
The most alarming part of this decrepit dietary data is that even Big Time Twitter users, the Twitter Elite, so to speak, have questionable palates. Perhaps they’re the worst culprits, considering their tweets stretch far and wide, thus influencing eaters across the globe. Here are a crazy eight who consistently forage in the top portion of the food pyramid …
.
.
.
Calvin LeeCalvin_Lee_Mayhemstudios (@Mayhemstudios) Successful designer, all around sweetheart, avid tweeter and number one on the chow-hound list, Calvin is affectionately known as a Cheeseburger Crime Lord. Frankly, any cheese, of any kind… any cheese on anything, is his weakness. Melted yummy cheese, cheese, cheese. He’s not a drinker but restaurant-oriented tweets of his foursquare.com locations bear witness to a food trail spanning many miles.
[Clogged Artery Rating: 10]
.
Shelly KramerShelly_Kramer (@ShellyKramer) This marketing strategist, takes no prisoners, tells it like it is, holding court like nobody’s business. And she isn’t shy about her food and alcohol adoration. Shelly goes so far as to list Milk Duds and beer in her bio, right up there with her professional accolades. Hold on, the buck doesn’t stop there, her tweets are saturated in fearless vodka shots and overflowing goblets of wine. Hot pie is her frequent nightcap. [Clogged Artery Rating: 9]
.
Susan ElaineSusan_Elaine_BuzzEdition (@BuzzEdition) A staple of Twitter, Susan wields her magic social media strategist wand garnering a bevy of followers to her flock for a feast of informative and entertaining links. However, when you least expect it she’ll surge forth a sugary trail of tweetage featuring candies, freshly baked chocolate chip cookies and pumpkin pie, all of which are washed down by Long Island Ice Teas.
[Clogged Artery Rating: 8.7]
.
Krystyn ChongKrystyn_Chong (@krystynchong) A geek, gamer and a great source for Blip.fm music. Her emoticons are infectious, it’s no wonder she’s got a hankering for smile pie and wow, she sure does dish it out. She loves the pie. She is the pie. The apple pie. Once drunk on sugar, Krys gets even more tweet tipsy — guzzling fancy vodka and expensive tequila. Dayum girl!
[Clogged Artery Rating: 7]
.
Arjun BasuArjun_Basu (@ArjunBasu) is a much-favorited big shot on favstar.fm. This heavily followed writer laces his 140-character fiction with a steady stream of alcohol-drinking drunkards. Very colorful tales are told, but it’s no wonder many of his characters experience damaged relationships. Occasionally some of Arjun’s protagonists suffer spontaneous flatulence as well, but I’m unsure if that’s booze induced.
[Clogged Artery Rating: 6]
.
Reg SaddlerReg_Saddler_Zaibatsu (@zaibatsu) A social media enterprise maven, and steady tweeter, he pumps out acres of solid content. You’d think someone so prolific would get awfully hungry. Oddly enough, Reg’s tweet menu items are few and far between, but when the edibles do surface, bet your ass it’s 1000 calorie pie, grease burgers, strong wine and refrigerated beer.
[Clogged Artery Rating: 5]
.
Danny BrownDanny_Brown (@DannyBrown) This busy fella is creator of the charity 12For12K and a steadfast social media strategist who lets his hair down after 9 p.m. EST. If you start to see a river of typos, get the life raft, there’s either a beer or white wine tweetage involved. Getting sloshed is mostly a weekend event for Danny, unless he’s learned how to hide it well during the week. He’s Scottish. Scots can drink you under the table… and leave you with the bill. Or so I’ve heard. [Clogged Artery Rating: 3.5]
.
Don’t get me wrong, these top tweeters can also enlighten you to awesome links and the latest breaking news, but be warned, follow these people and your waistline may expand as your cholesterol rises and your alcohol level slides deep into the DUI range. #JustSayin.
Twitter_Pie_Chart
.
Eye on the pie:
The pie preferences of tweeters as witnessed above, are shocking. When broken down by gender, Twitter pie loving comes out to 1% men and 99% women. Due to the mind-boggling gender bias of these findings, I’ve made a chart for anyone not familiar with statistics, look to the right.
.
Speaking of pie, a few top users tweet with trousers down, wooing the 140, cruising a coital path to seek their sustenance…

Jason X JasonX_TheUserPool (@TheUserPool) is often rated x but please add two more for a triple: XXX. Jason’s staple of choice is p*ssy. Yes, p*ssy. And I don’t mean he eats cats. Although many men (and women) may find this an awesome way to dine out, trust me, the potential dangers to your health are astronomical. Although it might be a diet worth looking into… more closely. [Clogged Artery Rating: 0]

Listen folks I’m not your mama or the foodie mafia here, but I hope what you’ve read above helps raise awareness about the severity of this issue. If this blog helps even one person to tweet out a salad once in awhile I’ve done my job.
————————
[Subscribe to ctkingston.com by email subscription or RSS feed -> AND the new BuzzVoice audio feed is available LISTEN To Ct Kingston posts. Subscribe!]

  • Share/Bookmark

Previous post:

Next post:

  • Should I join Twitter?
  • Vonia Perna
    I don't think I pay much attention to the food tweets; unless of course it involves a picture. The picture has the potential to make me hungry. @scodal is very good at tweeting pics of yummy food that his gf makes for him.
  • LOL now it looks like im helping murder people on twitter!
  • The pictures get me salivating too. I'll keep an eye out for @scodal's GF delights... I'm feeling famished already.
  • lmao i will follow u, follow me back and when i eat to stay ALIVE you'll see the pics LOL i dont want people to get the wrong idea that i promote being unhealthy! oh i know.. oh i recognize you i see your twitter name below
  • Ok, so maybe yesterday I ate two bags of Cheetos from the vending machine, a Diet Coke, two donuts, and a snack size KitKat and Reeses Cup... as an afternoon snack. I used to be so good, but now that I've started working out again, I clearly need to pack more healthy foods so I don't get caught snacking on these 9-10 zone foods.
  • That's a mighty fine diet you got there Jenny. Clogged Artery Rating: 8.4
    Good to see you here and reminds me I need to get back over to Workin On A Ramp.
  • I don't know if I feel good that I have the least clogginess, or bad that I need to live the dangerous life more. Is this what middle age brings? Lordy, I should eat more curry just to throw caution to the wind.

    I'm taking up knitting and tweeting about purl tow, switch one or something of that ilk. Yes indeed. :)
  • Hey You, I hope you didn't hurt your arm when throwing caution to the wind ;)
    Dangerous Danny Brown! Hey what are pearl toes. Heh!
  • Dana Allen
    I enjoyed reading this, it was very funny.
  • Dana thank you... You get two slices of pie!
  • I once tweeted about Tofu, along with @kingisafink who suggested @Philontilt have some to relax as he was getting hot and bothered about something or other. You can't get much healthier and whiter than tofu so beat that. And the only Tweeter who makes me hungry/thirsty for anything is @jeannevb with her tequila-drinking sprees, which I believe you have been in on once or twice, Miss Tina. And I can't eat anything sweet cuz I'm hyperactive - surprise - and get terrible buzzing which makes me take off like Forest Gump.

    By the way, do you know I look forward to your posts? I really do. And your replies too. Er, so can I get a slice of that virtual pie now?
  • Tofu Tweeters are a rare breed. See above: Tim Brownson's comment. He apparently has a flock of healthy food followers. I like tofu, especially when it's cooked with beef. hahaha... @Jeannevb often gets me thinking tequila and yep, I downed gallons of it at her house, as you know. Shame on me!

    Thank you Karen, that compliment coming from you means ... well, it's pie!
  • krinhoh
    Ah crap. We consumed a dozen Krispy Kremes on Saturday morning. Granted we do it once a year, but still. Still, I'm diggin' the no tweet, no ass expansion theory, although my ass does not seem currently to be in agreement.
  • Karen did you really? Good grief, come on, seriously? Wow, now I know where to go for the good eats... your house. For sure don't tweet it and you'll be certain to gain no weight. x
  • Loved this new post! You are the mama and this is so true. At times I do get influenced by someone's tempting foodie tweet and run to grab a quick bite but luckily Asian diet is quite healthy. I do go loco sometimes with cholesterol consumption but overall I'd say I play it safe.

    Having said that, I'm going to go grab myself a Kebab sandwich ;) love xoxo
  • Quds!

    Uh-oh, say it ain't so... am I the mama? Pffffffft... if so, I want you to clean your room RIGHT NOW young lady.

    I get influenced by the food tweets too. Not always eating what they tweet about, but it still causes me to hit the refrigerator or cupboard.

    There may be a lot of money to be made from this phenomena. I never get hungry when I see one of those million dollar TV food commercials. Hmmmmm...
  • Oh Tina, I loved this. I do my best to not tweet about food, but unfortunately some things have slipped through. Especially after this weekend's superbowl.

    I'm more curious what Non-Americans (is that the right word?) would tweet about in regards to food? If I tweeted while I was abroad in Spain, would I talk about botellon, cruzcampo, tortilla, and paella?
  • I haven't seen bunches of food tweeting coming from @stina6001 -But you do have the PR Brunch, maybe that counts. Brunch counts. But it's only @PRCog who has to eat his words. Haha, I jest!
    The non,un,too bad they aren't Americans people probably tweet food all day. And I bet it's high quality chow! Mmm mmm good! Thanks Christina!!
  • Wait. Why am I thinking about Krispy Kremes? I'm supposed to be exercising.

    chocolate. chocolate . chocolate . OR pie. pie. pie. ?

    Hmmm, chocolate pie?! :p
  • How about you exercise WHILE eating the Krispy Kremes? I have a hankering that this might could be a cool slim down solution! Thanks Jasmin ;-)
  • I love this! I love that Tina herself - a guru who knows what she's blogging about, the hot apple pie of all the guys, and whose tweets alone will expand your waistline a couple belt notches outward, can attest to the PIE. Just look at that body, it total screams "LA Face with an Oakland booty"... Tina got her Twittter diet IQ going on strong!

    I'm honored you've highlighted me and as I type this via iPhone on board Amtrak, I'm almost embarrassed to admit having to wipe the guapcachip crumbs from my touchscreen and lick the cinnamon horn glaze from my fingertips. Almost. Obviously, my need to share my foods and my drinks outweigh any embarrassment. My twitter, my twood - it's all good, baby.

    Your pie pyramid and chart put a grey goose smile on my face, girl. Keep on dazzling us w/your wit, charm, insight and twitter delight. You rock.

    Your Biggest Fan,
    Krys :)
  • Krys this is one of the funniest comments ever and of course you deliver it!
    You're top notch and holding your own in the Clogged Artery club. Love you for it and for numerous other things. Thanks for making Twitter so damn fun. And again, this comment, omg, You rock (outloud)!
  • Bwahhhaaahaa!! LA face and Oakland booty! That just makes scream with laughter. Me and my man "5am" (don't ask), we're into the East Bay chics. Half the traffic, twice the fun.
  • I'm not sure about my booty... it's kind of small. Now I plan to pump it up! I have to live up to my Rep, right?
    What are the East Bay chicks? Is that a secret society? Traffic? Mister Dave, what is it you're going on about?
  • Yeah, a fast food place that takes 7 hours would probably last about 7 hours until it went out of business.
  • Hilarious! And I'd be the one and only customer. Sad.
  • Thank goodness... I think I might be doing alright here.. I had cereal and milk for dinner tonight.. Thai chicken salad three times a week.. definitely not as bad as having a fatty burrito or a big BK Whopper.. although I kinda want a cheese burger right now.. bad Sunny! :-/ Love your blog as always Tina. Mmmwah! xx
  • The yum cereal sounds like the way to go. Especially for dinner!
  • LOL, that was just clever and damn funny- I don't feel nearly as bad for chowing on Ben & Jerrys and chasing it with a dirty martini while tweetin'
  • I had Ben & Jerrys last week and am already feeling nostalgic. Stop tempting me woman, stop, stop. We should start monitoring Danny Brown's feed to clock when he gets wobbly with his tweets!
  • Easy ladies, I'm on the sauce this weekend ;-)
  • :)
  • hahaha I LOVE the rating scale. Love the info graphics too! I shudder to think that if I lived in LA and my ass was close to the 101 cafe or Roscoe's I'd be a freakin 20.
  • Justin, right on, cool to see you here. A rating of 20 would have you buried 6'Feet under before the year 2011.
    Thank goodness you don't live in the backroom of Roscoes! That place is not far from my house. Now every time I drive by I'll think of you wanting to devour the joint. Ha... don't forget your spinach BHD... think about the spinach!
  • jeannevb
    Great post, as always, Tina! From my vantage point, food tweets are sent out to make others jealous of what yumminess we're eating as we tweet. Hmmm, looks like @TheUserPool is the healthiest.... and probably has more jealous male followers than @mayhemstudios. Did someone say PIE?
  • Heh, the jealousy angle sounds oh so true. Especially the tweeters who pimp out fancy meals that I'd have to fly to Chicago or NYC to get. Those bastards. There is no good food in my part of the world. Many will disagree with me, but if they do, I'll smash a pie in their faces. And um.. yes, the User Pool ain't hurtin re: male jealousy... he's an animal!
  • Haha. What a fun approach to a post CT! I don't THINK I tweet about what I eat/drink very often. The diet certainly isn't great, but I try to make up for it by always being at the gym or track when I'm not working!
  • Thank You Ryan! If you start tweeting constantly about the gym then you can start tweeting a bunch about the fatty foods. It will balance out. That way you'll become a positive influence instead of what those Twitter Elite folks are up to. Especially Krystyn Chong, haha.
  • jonikennedy
    I'll never be able to look at @mayhemstudios avatar again without seeing a cheeseburger. Although I have tweeted about eating a salad most of my food tweets are filled with M&M's ,margaritas,wine and the occasional bento box. Very funny post!
  • So funny about @mayhemstudios resembling a cheeseburger for the rest of your life!
    If you ever meet him in person you might spontaneously spray him with condiments!
    Your list of fattening tweets sound good... but I'll be checking for a salad soon.
  • i tweeted about carrots. amazingly, before i even read this. it's like, parallel synchronization shit.

    except that i tweeted about how my bowels weren't pleased w my carrots consumption. You see, i'm on the replace cigarettes with baby carrots diet. Day 1, not dead yet.
  • Let's ignore the bowels for a moment here...

    No way! Did you really tweet carrots! You have to come back and drop the 'status link' to that tweet... or just paste in the words. I am excited to hear this! It means the world is changing and all will be slim and fit in the upcoming days. Or does it only mean that you are the only tweeter with a healthy diet? Bravo!
  • I am so not a foodie. But rather graze when necessary. Although b/c i'm in the south, i do tend to get riled up by things like chicken fried steak with sawmill gravy, which appear on the table far too infrequently if you ask me. Maybe once a year. You know, because my physical metabolism has declined proportionately with the increase in my mental metabolism and my wife's trying to keep me alive long enough to end up writing something good.
  • Jim, you're not a foodie? I'm outraged. How can anyone in the Ad business not be a gushing food groupie?
    I guess I've lost touch with the modern world.

    The treats that get you riled up sound so darn tasty. I'm seriously regretting that my refrigerator is bare.
    I'm happy to hear about your increased mental metabolism, hahahaha... Tell your wife I'm sending "long life" vibes your way.
  • I'm eating chocolate, because carrots are too far away in my otherwise empty refrigerator. what Nicely done, @CTK1
  • Chocolate soothes the soul. Might taste better if you melt it and poor it over a few fresh carrots! Um...maybe? Hmmm... nah, that'd be yucky!
  • timbrownson
    You're following the wrong (or more likely, the right) people. I'm always seen people talking about eating organic wild mountain air or sipping on free trade decaffeinated, eco-friendly, coffee free coffee.

    Where have you been women?
  • I should check in on these people who tweet healthy eating! But then I'd lose too much weight and people will get back to asking me, "OMG, do you ever eat?" or the one that bothers me the most, "Wow, get a sandwich!"... as a woman with a super fast metabolism I can't take the ridicule that would come from following Eco-Friendly coffee drinkers. Woes me.
  • henie
    Sorry, can't talk (or write)...have a mouth full of thick, sweet warm syrup and the pancakes are getting jealous! :~)
  • Pancakes? Please stop the torture Henie. I've been needing a stack of pancakes for weeks now.
    You evil food vixen!
  • All this talk of food is making me want to get an early lunch. Too bad I already indulged in the filth that is Del Taco breakfast. Nice graphics in this post, by the way. I really like the Twitter food pyramid.
  • Did you get a 2nd early lunch? The Del Taco "filth" sounds kind of good. I want fast food now.
    Wouldn't it be funny if they had a fast food place that took 7 hours to make the food?
    Um, nope, not funny at all. Ooops, I think I'm getting tired. Thanks for the graphic love.
  • I think @krystynchong takes the cake! Or @ElyssaD - both great tweeters, though!
  • I know, wow, Krystyn is a wild women w/ the music and the food. She's stellar.
    Thanks for stopping by Itamar. #TwitterHS :-)
  • This is hilarious. Reading food tweets totally makes me hungry (esp. when they include pictures!), but I'm not above tweeting about what I'm craving or what I'm looking forward to eating. I know I probably drive people crazy, especially when I tweet about what noms I'm going to bake or cook. So....should I feel bad?
  • The food pics are droolers, so yum. It's unfair of people to tempt us like that, but they are all corrupt.
    I like your nom nom tweets. Don't stop the dance.
  • You are. You are the foodie mafia. You and that creepy bird in the twitter pie. I see it's beady little eyes ogling me. Smirking.

    That's it. I'm fasting.

    "decrepit dietary data" indeed. An inapprorpiately alarming alliteration. Having you no shame, woman?

    (Pay no attention to my last twitpic. That wasn't me. Really it wasn't.)
  • HAAAAAAAAAAA! Inappropriate alliteration is my middle name, don't wear it out.
    I love the "creepy bird in the twitter pie. I see it's beady little eyes ogling me. Smirking."
    You're killin' man! Come back often.

    +did you see the sandals and socks? ;-)
  • You're point was proven when we checked out one of the mentioned Tweeters and saw their most recent tweet about "evil microwaved pork grinds."
    Plus, if you're checking out Twitter because you're bored, it goes hand-in-hand with another remedy for boredom...EATING! Maybe people should be limited in not just the amount of characters they can tweet but the number of calories they can tweet about, haha.
    Digit@l living should be h@ppy and he@lthy, not leave us hungry!
  • Hilarious! That was Krystyn Chong you saw. Too funny. I caught that 'pork grinds' as well and nearly fell off my chair chuckling at her greasy ways! You're right that eating and boredom are a lovely and monogamous duo! Thanks for the funnies :-)
  • Attention Twats: Pleased be advised that there is a strong movement demanding that the Twitter Elite now begin to a) update their avatar photos monthly and, (b) include before and after shots of their avatars.
    The Surgeon General has already warned us that many avatars no longer bear even a fleeting resemblance to the human behind the tweets. It has been reported, but undoubtedly will never be confirmed, that constant tweeting and searching the internet for relevant items to tweet for the past two years, with only six hours of sleep in this time period, requires that Calvin Lee's avatar undergo no less than three Photoshop treatments each and every day.
    Darren Monroe's avatar is now suing him for pay increases and retroactive overtime pay due.
    Please be careful, twats and would-be twats, should understand that this is an addictive and destructive lifestyle choice, and should only be followed after careful research and consultation with your graphic designer.
    @davidweedmark
  • What in God or Satan's name are you going on about? This is some dialogue that Paul Schrader cut out of his Taxi Driver script. Apparently Martin Scorsese had no idea how to direct that part of the script.
    Wacky stuff Weedmark... Are you on the sauce?
  • First of all: Maybe.
    Second of all: You talkin' to me?!
    Third of all: That wasn't even me. It was my own twitter avatar. If you haven't noticed, he's really been packing on the extra pixels since all this food stuff started and I think he was just trying to divert attention away from himself, in that "Cancel her Jenny Craig spokesperson contract NOW!!!" kinda way. I hate to point fingers, but I really don't think this twitter diet stuff was even an issue until "someone" started her "Think Sausage!" campaign - shortly after the holiday's if I recall.
    Fourth of all: Yeah, maybe.
  • Unflinchingly insane, which is a quite admirable thing, indeed. Your avatar could use a few stomach crunches and maybe could go on the steroids for a few months. Get off of them before the rage sets in. I'd hate to see your avatar get arrested for assault and battery. *or worse*
  • ShellyKramer
    Tina, this post just made me even hungrier!!! Would write more, but gotta go find some P. I. E. :)))
    Mwah.
  • OMG, now your rating will skyrocket. Thanks Shelly, for being you. It's appreciated!
  • Well, I wasn't hungry BEFORE I read this. For the record, I eat fat free vanilla yogurt with granola and honey every morning and frequently tweet about it's deliciousness. So there.
  • I hope you ate everything you could and all at once after clicking off my website! But it sounds like your tweetage is healthy and low on the Clogged Artery scale. Not bad, Vanessa, not bad.
  • Nsedef
    fage yogurt w/honey; fuji apple; protein bar so far today. your turn, tina. what's spillin' on your keyboard? am sure it's far more revealing..
  • Oolala all those foods sound fancy. *envy*

    "what's spillin' on your keyboard?

    My keyboard is hella'sticky from spilled coffee and the ocassional beer that seems magnetically attracted to the exclamation key!!!
  • Okay, now I'm hungry. And thinking about pie. Hopefully that will push the graph up to 2%. Great post as always!
  • Uh-Oh, do I have to make a new pie chart? That graphic took me 7 hours. Darn you Roger. But overall you're way more than just a statistic. You got that going for you, which is nice.
  • bsimi
    I am so going to eat a salad with an glass of skim milk and tweet about... I didnt go to the gym at 6:30am for nothing ;-)
    Great post !
  • Go to the gym with @Slickriptide (see above), he can spot you as you lift 100-800 lb weights. I'm just guessing poundage. I don't know how much you press. But now you'll be able to go lighter given your new diet of carrots and skim milk. Bravo Bsimi!
  • Slickriptide
    I wonder what a rep for donuts and honey mead says about me? I better start tweeting about carrot sticks...
  • Carrots are the way to go. Think of your 'followers' and 'following.' Remember that you're a big influence. The weight on your shoulders is heavy. Get to the gym!
  • ninibaseema
    Oh my god. I now feel guilty. I just had a massive chocolate bar ;)

    (lovely and entertaining tweet though Mrs T!)
  • Massive chocolate bars are only high caloric if "tweeted." If eaten offline there's very little risk of butt expansion. So you're okay there. Carry on!
blog comments powered by Disqus