Food blogs on Facebook and communication strategies: a new recipe for healthy nutritional messages

Abstract

Background. Recent researches have revealed that the Internet is a popular tool for acquiring nutritional health information, especially among young adults. People are increasingly seeking recipes through Internet sources, including food blogs. With the growing popularity of social media, health professionals must become aware of the quality of recipes information that is commonly available on them. The purpose of this study was to examine both quantity and quality of food bloggers' nutritional messages on the main European social network (Facebook). Methods. From January to March 2017, we carried out a quantitative evaluation of posts and interactions with users, in terms of feedbacks, comments and reactions to posts proposed by the 10 most popular Italian food bloggers. We performed statistical analyses in order to detect the presence of any differences based on the type and form of the content. Results. Preliminary data showed that the main topics consisted of recipes and pictures of bloggers own meals. We also observed a high presence of advertisements. Among food-related posts, 21% of them referred to junk food. Through a multilevel analysis we found that posts concerning junk food are more "liked", commented and shared than the other ones. Results also showed that, independently from food healthiness, videos with links to blogs (p < 0.001) and photos of bloggers meals (p < 0.05) obtained more reactions than other kinds of posts. Conclusions. This study underlines the importance of examining the relationship between social media and nutrition. Despite posts with junk food are less represented, they are more attractive than healthy ones. Future international Public Health policies and eHealth dietary interventions should consider the importance of communication tools like videos and take advantage of strategies such as meals photos to spread nutritional messages. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Public Health Association. All rights reserved.