Healthy-Eating Blogs

Thinking of starting a nutrition or healthy-eating blog? Start by knowing the data on what end users find most useful.

To understand what people are looking for, researchers asked 33 women for their perceptions of four Canadian healthy-eating blogs. The results were published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

The women said the most useful blogs included these components:

• Recipes. Almost all women interviewed found recipes were essential and relevant.
• Videos. The women loved videos demonstrating new cooking techniques, though few blogs included them.
• Search panes and keywords. These made it easier to find specific content.
• Hyperlinks directing readers to other posts in the same blog or to reliable external resources.
• Identifiable authors, disclosed conflicts of interest and references citing sources. The women considered these factors critical, as they boost ­credibility.
• Name, picture and professional experience of the blog author.
• Large font size, defined paragraphs, subtitles and well-structured posts.
• Quick responses to comments and questions, though some of the women said they felt reluctant to post comments.
• Narrative-style blogs with social engagement, personal experiences and everyday stories. Readers thought these were more useful than nonnarrative blogs that focused primarily on reasoned arguments and health claims.

Do you have a healthy-eating or fitness blog? What characteristics do your readers find most useful? After reading this study recap, what will you do differently? Send your responses to Sandy Todd Webster at [email protected]