Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
SALT LAKE CITY — It used to be that the daily 5 o'clock question, "What should I make for dinner?" was rhetorical. But now, AI is actually answering with recipes, meal plans and even personal wellness recommendations.
KSL Health Contributor Miki Eberhardt warned that when it comes to nutrition advice, not everything AI serves up is good for us.
Nutrition & AI: The Pros
Meal Planning
One of Eberhardt's favorite ways to use AI is meal planning.
"The more detailed information you give… the more helpful it can be back," she explained.
Giving specific details about your dietary goals, food preferences, allergies and cooking habits helps AI create customized menus and grocery lists.
"If I put in that I'm trying to follow a Mediterranean diet that's higher in fiber, and these are the foods I like, and these are the ones I don't like or I have allergies to," Eberhardt explained, "Give me a week-long menu, give me the grocery list, this is what's in my pantry, this is in my fridge."
Nutrient Tracking
Beyond meal planning, AI can also help you track nutritional content.
"If I'm wondering... am I getting 25 grams of fiber a day like I'm supposed to?" Eberhardt said. "I could put that recipe in, say, 'This serves six, how many grams of fiber are in one serving?' It'll tell you... accurately."
Accountability Partner
Eberhardt also said you can use AI to support healthy habits. She shared an example of a client who used reminders to help her avoid an unhealthy work habit. The chatbot encouraged healthier choices and gave follow-up support. Eberhardt emphasized that support from an actual human is better, but these tools provide motivation when others aren't available.
Nutrition & AI: The Precautions
No Health History Intake
Eberhardt emphasized that there are important limitations to AI. One of the biggest is that AI doesn't have your full health history unless you provide it. Without a full understanding of lab results, medications, diagnoses or medical conditions, AI recommendations can be incomplete.
"What that chatbot can be recommending for you can be harmful," she said.
Dangerous for Youth
Eberhardt said that teens using AI for nutrition guidance can be dangerous. She shared research showing that AI recommendations can sometimes be significantly off the mark for teenagers.
"For overweight teens… it gave 700 calories less of a recommendation than a dietician would," she explained.
Eberhardt said that kind of misinformation can contribute to unhealthy relationships with food. She emphasized that not every recommendation generated by AI should be taken at face value.
The More Specialized, the More Inaccurate
Eberhardt said that general meal ideas are one thing, but medical nutrition advice is another.
"Chatbots are not trained to give clinical advice accurately," she emphasized.
If you're asking broad questions about healthy eating, AI can be a useful tool. But the more specialized a concern, the more expertise is required.
"My liver labs are high, I'm trying to do this, I'm on this medication," she said. "You need a lot more clinical fine-tuning to answer that question than maybe typically you'd get."
Because AI pulls from a wide range of sources, the quality of specialized advice varies a lot.
"You're from a Reddit thread to a peer-reviewed journal," Eberhardt explained.
In highly specific areas like sports nutrition, medical nutrition therapy and specialized health conditions, answers from AI may not be as reliable. If you're using AI for health information, Eberhardt said it's important to verify the source.
"Ask Chat, 'Where did you get this information?'" she said. "If it's not a peer-reviewed journal, maybe don't take it so seriously."
Find more health advice from Miki Eberhardt on Instagram, @nutritionbymiki.
This story was adapted from a TV broadcast script using artificial intelligence. Every story, including those adapted with AI, is reviewed by a human editor before publication to ensure that KSL's editorial standards are upheld.
