r/nutrition rules, stats, and what to post

r/nutrition is a subreddit for discussing the science of nutrition. The public description names macronutrients, micronutrients, human metabolism and digestion, and nutrition news and research as the core topics. The people posting here want evidence based discussion, and the rules say civil discourse is required. This is a science room, not a personal advice room. The rules make that clear by banning personal diet posts, medical questions, cooking talk, and anything off topic. So the crowd here is people who want to talk about how nutrition works at a research level, not people looking for a meal plan or a product recommendation.

The rule that decides everything for a marketer is “No Spam or Self Promotion”, which bans self promotion of any kind and says you may not link to, discuss, or mention your project, website, app, or business. “Personal situations posts are NOT allowed” removes anything about you or what you eat, including diet evaluations and comparisons of specific foods. “No Medical Context, Request, or Advice” removes any discussion of medical conditions, treatments, lab values, starvation diets, eating disorders, or diets for minors. “No Science Rejection or Conspiracy Theories” requires that claims conflicting with WHO recommendations come with peer reviewed evidence from the past 10 years, and states that YouTube is not evidence. “Off Topic Posts” removes anything not about the science of nutrition, including cooking, recipes, supermarket brands, exercise, and food apps. “Account Restrictions” blocks brand new accounts and low karma accounts from posting, and says content that looks AI written will be removed. “Follow Reddiquette+” sets the tone, and “No Dietary Activism” bans vilifying anyone’s dietary choices.

For a founder doing respectful Reddit marketing, the honest answer is that this community allows no promotion at all, so your goal is to participate, not to market. A good post is a genuine question or discussion starter about the science of nutrition, like how a nutrient is metabolized or what recent research says about a topic. If you share a source, it needs to be recent, within the past 10 years, and peer reviewed if it goes against WHO recommendations. Keep the tone civil and curious. Do not mention your product, your website, or your company anywhere, not even in a comment or your profile framing. If you want a place here, comment thoughtfully on other people’s posts first, especially while your account is new, because brand new and low karma accounts cannot post.

The fastest way to get removed is to promote anything. The rule is written very broadly, so even mentioning your project in passing counts. Posting about your own diet, asking how much of a food to eat, or comparing two foods gets removed under the personal situations rule. Asking which food is healthier trips the dietary activism rule. Any medical framing, like asking about a condition or a lab value, gets removed, and eating disorder or minor diet topics can lead to a ban. Sharing a YouTube video as proof, or leaning on something you read in another sub, fails the evidence standard. Posts about cooking, recipes, brands, exercise, or food apps are off topic. Finally, do not show up with a fresh account or anything that reads like AI text, because both get filtered out.

What stands out to me is rule 3, where the moderators say YouTube is not evidence and they hear the same cherry picked articles over and over, which tells you exactly how tired this room is of recycled claims. The rule against comparing the health of different foods is also unusual, and it exists because those questions always turn into dietary activism. My honest read is that this is one of the hardest communities on Reddit to market into, and the only respectful move is to show up as a curious learner, not a promoter.