Beware nutritional deficiency risks from AI-powered diet programmes

Jakarta – Teenagers are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence chatbots to develop their diet plans. However, a new study warns that meal plans generated by AI potentially cause nutritional deficiencies and may trigger eating disorders.

Research published in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition found that AI-generated meal plans tend to underestimate the nutrition and caloric intake required by adolescents for healthy growth. The study’s lead researcher, Ayse Betul Bilen from Istanbul Atlas University, assessed that AI diet plans differ significantly from those compiled by nutritionists.

“Following an unbalanced or overly restrictive meal plan during adolescence can negatively impact growth, metabolic health, and eating behaviour,” said Bilen, as reported by US News on Monday, 16 March 2026.

In this research, investigators asked five free online AI models – ChatGPT 4, Gemini 2.5 Pro, Bing Chat-5GPT, Claude 4.1, and Perplexity – to create meal plans. The researchers provided age, height, and weight data from four hypothetical 15-year-old adolescents consisting of two overweight teenagers and two with obesity. The AI was then asked to create a three-day meal plan with three main meals and two snacks daily.

As a comparison, the researchers also asked a nutritionist specialising in adolescent health to create a meal plan using the same guidelines. The results showed that AI models estimated adolescent energy requirements nearly 700 calories lower than estimated by the nutritionist. That figure is equivalent to skipping one full meal each day.

Additionally, AI-generated meal plans also showed imbalances in macronutrient composition. AI tended to calculate protein and fat amounts too high, and calculated carbohydrate requirements too low.