Keto beats Alkaline to be crowned the most popular diet of 2021, online data reveals

With people keen to document all aspects of their lives on Instagram and TikTok, the food they eat is of particular interest. This couldn’t be more apparent than if you were to search ‘diets’ into Instagram and TikTok, with 485,000 hashtags and 106 million views respectively. Social media is becoming a repository for finding new diets, lifestyle choices, recipes and undiscovered cuisines.

But with so many diets that can be suitable for your lifestyle, which one is the most popular?

Interested in finding out which diet has the most traction on social media platforms in 2021, Vegan cakes Jack and Beyond compiled a list of 20 of the most popular diets and took to Instagram and TikTok to discover the number of hashtags and views they have generated. 

10 of the most popular diets on Instagram and TikTok

Rank

Diet 

   Combined number of Instagram hashtags and TikTok views

1

Keto

1,010,200,000

2

Alkaline

29,878,000

3

Mediterranean

23,310,000

4

Vegan

15,075,000

5

Paleo

14,500,000

6

Raw food

14,168,000

7

Atkins

1,073,500

8

Vegetarian

911,400

9

DASH

315,200

10

Flexitarian

246,300

The diet that has been crowned the most popular is the high fat, low carb Keto diet. It has the highest number of Instagram hashtags (10,200,000) and views on TikTok (1,000,000,000). 

The Alkaline diet, favouring lots of vegetables, fruits and drinking water, places second with 678,000 hashtags on Instagram and 29,200,000 views on TikTok. 

Coming in at number three as the most popular diet is the Mediterranean diet with 510,000 Instagram hashtags and 22,800,000 views on TikTok. This diet is high in vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, beans, cereals, grains, fish, and unsaturated fats such as olive oil. It usually includes a low intake of meat and dairy foods. 

In fourth place is the Vegan diet that excludes all animal based foods from your diet. It has 775,000 Instagram hashtags and 14,300,000 views on TikTok. Next is the Paleo diet, based around traditional hunting and fishing techniques, with 2,000,000 Instagram hashtags and 12,500,000 views on TikTok. 

In sixth place is the Raw Food diet with 168,000 Instagram hashtags and 14,000,000. Numbers drop significantly for the Atkins diet with 386,000 Instagram hashtags and 687,500 views on Tiktok. Whilst in eighth position is the long time favourite Vegetarian diet for those wanting to cut out meat with 86,400 Instagram hashtags and 825,000 on Tiktok. 

In ninth place is the DASH diet with 19,700 Instagram hashtags and 295,500 TikTok views. Finally, with   25,600 Instagram followers and 220,700 TikTok views, we have the Flexitarian diet as the relaxed version of the vegetarian diet which allows dieters to consume small amounts of animal based products.