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UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL NOVEMBER 7, 2013, 12:01 AM ET
Research Brief
Podcast available online
at www.jneb.org
Do Food Blogs Serve as a Source of Nutritionally Balanced
Recipes? An Analysis of 6 Popular Food Blogs
Elizabeth P. Schneider, MS, RD; Emily E. McGovern, MS, RD; Colleen L. Lynch, MS;
Lisa S. Brown, PhD, RD
ABSTRACT
Objective: To determine whether sampled food blogs provide nutritionally balanced recipes.
Methods: Two entree recipes per season, per year (2010–2011) were selected from 6 highly ranked
food blogs (n ¼ 96). Food Processor Nutrition and Fitness software was used to analyze sodium, saturated
fat, and energy content. Analysis was separated by protein type (vegetarian, poultry, red meat, and seafood).
Results: Recipes met energy recommendations but were excessive in saturated fat and sodium.
Vegetarian and seafood recipes were significantly lower in risk nutrients compared with red meat and
poultry recipes. Red meat recipes were not significantly different from poultry recipes for risk nutrients
studied; poultry recipes were higher in sodium and energy compared with red meat recipes.
Conclusions and Implications: The public should be aware of the nutritional limitations of
popular food blogs; dietitians could assist in modifying blog recipes for individuals and partner with
bloggers to improve the nutritional profile of recipes.
Key Words: food blogs, social media, recipe modification, saturated fat, sodium (J Nutr Educ Behav.
2013;45:696-700.)
INTRODUCTION
Dietitians and public health professionals often recommend cooking at
home to help individuals reduce
sodium, saturated fat, and total energy intake, but doing so successfully
depends on access to a source of
recipes that will assist in meeting targets for these risk-related nutrients.1
Increasingly, individuals are seeking
recipes through Internet sources
including food blogs.2 With the growing popularity of social media,
dietitians and other public health
professionals must become aware of
the quality of recipe information
that is available and commonly
accessed on the Internet.
Despite recommendations that
Americans limit saturated fat and sodium intake and balance total energy
intake, national data suggest that
Americans do not meet recommended
targets.3,4-6 Frequent consumption of
food away from home contributes to
excess energy, fat, and sodium.7,8
However, data also suggest that intake
of fat, energy, and sodium exceed
recommended levels even for those
who eat out less often.9 Complete
understanding as to why those who
eat more frequently at home exceed
recommendations warrants further research. Hypothesized reasons include
larger portions and higher frequency
of snacking.9 One area that should be
looked at more closely involves the
virtual space in which consumers are
accessing recipes, and the nutritional
adequacy of those recipes.
According to a recent survey from
BlogHer,10 the top female social media network, 89% of the US online
population has used the Internet to
find recipes, and those who do so
place high importance on cooking
dinner every night. With a growing
number of individuals cooking at
home compared with eating out,
food blogs may markedly affect
nutrient intake.11
Nutrition Department, Simmons College, Boston, MA
Address for correspondence: Elizabeth P. Schneider, MS, Nutrition Department, Simmons
College, 300 The Fenway, Boston, MA 02115; Phone: (774) 238-7707; Fax: (617) 521-3002;
E-mail: [email protected]
Ó2013 SOCIETY FOR NUTRITION EDUCATION AND BEHAVIOR
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jneb.2013.07.002
696
Several factors may influence the
nutritional content of recipes posted
on food blog sites. The use of colorful
photographs to attract readership
may emphasize appearance over
nutritional value. Popular bloggers
may also have partnerships with
food companies, which can influence
the ingredients and therefore the
nutritional value of the posted recipes. In this way, food blogs may serve
as a mode of food advertising in
which the reader's degree of trust in
the blog may have an important role
in consumerism.2 The BlogHer study
also found that 71% of young food
blog readers aged 18–44 years have
made purchases based on a blog's
recommendation.10 The purpose of
this study was to determine whether
sampled food blogs provide nutritionally balanced recipes for the public.
METHODS
The authors performed a content
analysis to examine nutrient values
of recipes found on popular food
blogs. The Web site BlogRank12 was
used to identify the top 6 food
blogs relevant to the study.
BlogRank collects data for approximately 20,000 blogs and uses an algorithm based on ranking factors
including Rich Site Summary (RSS)
Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior Volume 45, Number 6, 2013
Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior Volume 45, Number 6, 2013
memberships, unique monthly visitors, search engine ranks, number of
incoming links, pages per visit, and
link-to-page ratio. The ultimate rank
filter, which incorporates all of these
factors, was used to determine blog
popularity for the final selection.
Blogs were required to have frequent
postings and contain entree recipes
that could be generalized to the
public, as opposed to blogs that cater
to special diets such as gluten free or
vegetarian. Table 1 provides a description of the food blogs analyzed for
this study.
The recipe selection protocol specified 2 entrees per season per year for
the years 2010 and 2011, for a total
of 96 recipes representing the 6 blogs.
Season was specified in 3-month
increments as fall (September, October, and November), winter (December, January, and February), spring
(March, April, and May), and summer
(June, July, and August). Recipes were
eligible for analysis if they were posted
during the specified season and year,
and if they were labeled ‘‘main
course’’ or ‘‘entree.’’ Recipes were
selected chronologically as listed on
the blog Web site to avoid selection
bias. Recipes excluded from analysis
included those labeled as beverages,
desserts, and hors d’oeuvres. Blogs
designed specifically for restricted
diets were also excluded because of
the potential for the special dietary
needs to alter nutrient content for
the nutrients of interest.
The authors analyzed a subset of
15 recipes to determine inter-rater
reliability among the 3 coders. All
blogs were represented in this subset.
An acceptable level of agreement was
set before analysis at a score of 0.90.
An intra-class correlation score was
calculated based on 6 nutrients (total
calories, protein, total fat, cholesterol,
saturated fat, and sodium) with an
average score of 0.972, which confirmed high inter-rater agreement.
Food Processor Nutrition and Fitness
software (version 10.9.0, ESHA
Research, Inc, Salem, OR, 2011) was
used to calculate nutrient values in
the recipes. If a specific ingredient
could not be found in the Food
Processor software, an online search
was performed to determine the
closest relative, which was entered in
the code book and used by all coders
to maintain consistency. Ambiguous
measurements such as ‘‘pinch of
salt’’ were quantified and compiled
into an analysis protocol, also to
ensure consistency.
The Food Processor program
(database released: August 8, 2011)
provided a complete list of nutrient
information for the recipes. In addition to the nutrient analysis, the US
Department of Agriculture's MyPlate
tool was selected within the Food
Processor program to assess the
nutrient breakdown compared with
the 2010 Dietary Guidelines.13 The
as-purchased weight of food and the
edible portion weight were accounted
Table 1. Food Blog Author Locations and Popularity Rankingsa
Name
Pinch My Salt
Chocolate and
Zucchini
Simply Recipes
Smitten Kitchen
Pioneer Woman
Busy at Home
Location
California, US
Paris, France
California, US
New York, US
Oklahoma, US
Nebraska, US
Unique Visitorsb Google Rankc Blog Rankd
42,213
103,505
4
21
7
6
2,005,628
325,687
655,219
7,554
15
5
37
> 100
NA
3
7
18
NA indicates not available.
a
Numbers are as of July, 2012; bUnique visitors according to http://Compete.com
(a count of unique individual people visiting the site per month). Visitors are
counted once, no matter how many times they visit a site in a month. Counts
represent traffic from the US only; cGoogle Organic Search Rank is search results
regardless of paid advertising efforts; dBlog Rank uses over 20 different factors to
rank blogs in any category. Some of the factors include Rich Site Summary (RSS)
membership, incoming links, Compete Alexa and Technorati ranking, and social
sites popularity.
Schneider et al 697
for within the Food Processor program.
One-way analysis of variance
tested variations between the dependant variables of calories, saturated
fat, and sodium and the independent
variables of blog, season, year, and
protein type (meat, seafood, poultry,
and vegetable). Analysis of variance
tests were run independently for
each category and all data were
normally distributed as determined
by
Kolmogorov-Smirnov
testing
within the SPSS program (version
10.1, SPSS, Inc, Chicago, IL, 2012).
Seafood recipes were initially left out
of the analysis because of insufficient
power as a result of the small sample
size (n ¼ 8) but were later included
together with the vegetable recipes
for a post hoc analysis of a pescatarian
recipe category. Post hoc Tukey analysis was used when comparing $ 3 or
more variables, such as the case
with seasons and protein types, to
investigate original relationships. In
addition, overall nutrient means
were calculated for each category and
for the entire sample. Statistical significance was set at P < .05. All statistical
tests were run using SPSS software.
Institutional review board review
was not required for this study
because human subjects were not
involved, as per the US Department
of Health and Human Services guidelines.14
RESULTS
The final sample consisted of 96
recipes, 38% of which were classified
as vegetarian (pasta, salads, soups/
stews, casseroles, etc, without meat,
but including dairy and egg); 33% of
the recipes featured red meat as the
protein source; 21% featured poultry;
and 8% featured seafood in the form
of either fin fish or shellfish. No significant differences were found for total
calories, saturated fat, or sodium
among the 6 blogs or the individual
year categories.
Although no significant differences
in calories or saturated fat were
observed by season, significant
differences were found for sodium
across seasons (P ¼ .04). Recipes
posted from December to May contained 30% more sodium compared
with recipes posted from June to
November.
Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior Volume 45, Number 6, 2013
698 Schneider et al
As shown in Table 2, significant
differences were identified for riskrelated nutrients across protein categories. The protein categories differed
in mean number of calories (P ¼ .001),
saturated fat (P ¼ .006), and sodium
(P < .001), and all risk-related nutrients of interest were significantly
lower in vegetarian recipes compared
with red meat and poultry recipes.
When seafood recipes were combined
with the vegetarian category in
post hoc analysis to create a pescatarian category, the mean number of
calories (P < .001), saturated fat
(P ¼ .001), and sodium (P < .001)
remained significantly lower compared with recipes that contained
either red meat or poultry as the
protein source.
As shown in Table 3, mean values
for the risk-related nutrients of interest found that overall, the mean
number of calories across all 96 blog
recipes was within dietary guideline
recommendations (516 vs 667 kcal
recommended for one third of the
daily value of a 2,000-kcal diet),
whereas sodium and saturated fat
exceeded recommendations (855 mg
of sodium vs no more than 767 mg
recommended, and 9.36 g saturated
fat vs no more than 7 g recommended).3 This analysis did not take
into account beverages, side dishes,
and desserts, which could have contributed additional calories, sodium,
and fat to the meal. Also, daily sodium
and saturated fat targets could have
been met with other meals throughout the day.
When protein categories were
separated, vegetarian recipes were
significantly lower in calories compared with red meat recipes (400 vs
592 kcal; P ¼ .01), saturated fat (6.6
vs 11.7 g; P ¼ .012), and sodium
(605 vs 944 mg; P ¼ .014). Vegetarian
recipes were also significantly lower
in calories compared with poultry
recipes (400 vs 652 kcal; P ¼ .003),
saturated fat (6.6 vs 11.7 g; P ¼ .035),
and sodium (605 vs 1,252 mg;
P < .001). Red meat recipes were not
significantly different from poultry
recipes in terms of the risk nutrients
studied, although poultry recipes
were higher in mean sodium and
calorie content compared with red
meat recipes.
DISCUSSION
This study compared popular food
blog entr
ee recipes with one third of
the Dietary Reference Intakes similar
to menu planning techniques used
in the National School Lunch Program.15 Using this proportion,
a meal should have included approximately 667 calories, 17 g protein,
100 g carbohydrate, 22 g fat, 8.3 g
fiber, 6.7 g saturated fat, and 767 mg
sodium. Compared with these standards, the overall mean nutrient
content of these food blog recipes
was acceptable in calories, low in
carbohydrate and fiber, and high in
saturated fat and sodium. Although
the addition of side dishes, beverages,
and other meal components may
alter the nutrient content of the
meal, potentially raising carbohydrate
and fiber into the target range,
sodium and saturated fat would continue to exceed recommendations
for a meal featuring the analyzed
entree recipes.
To the knowledge of the researchers, this study was unique in
its focus on online recipes from food
Table 2. Nutrient Means of Food Blog Recipes and Recommended Percentage Based on Daily Value
All Recipes
(n ¼ 96)
Red Meata
Recipes (n ¼ 32)
Seafood
Recipes (n ¼ 8)
Vegetable
Recipes (n ¼ 36)
Poultryb
Recipes (n ¼ 20)
Calories, kcal
516
592
398
400
652
Calories, % Rcmdc
26
30
22
20
33
Saturated fat, g
9.4
11.7
6.6
6.6
11.7
Saturated fat, % Rcmd
47
59
33
33
58
Sodium (mg)
855
944
631
605
1,252
Sodium, % Rcmd
36
39
26
25
52
Trans fatty acid, g
0.19
0.28
0.20
0.11
0.20
29
40
24
14
39
Nutrients
Protein, g
Protein, % Rcmd
57
80
47
27
79
Carbohydrates, g
42
34
39
45
48
Carbohydrates, % Rcmd
14
11
13
15
16
Dietary fiber, g
4.3
4.1
2.9
5.0
4.0
Dietary fiber, % Rcmd
17
17
11
20
16
Fat, g
26
32
16
19
32
Fat, % Rcmd
40
49
24
29
49
Omega 3 fatty acid, g
0.2
0.2
0.5
0.2
0.2
Omega 6 fatty acid, g
1.7
1.6
0.9
1.1
3.3
Rcmd indicates recommended.
a
Red meat recipes included beef, pork, and rabbit; bPoultry recipes included chicken and turkey; c% Rcmd denotes the
percentage of the recommended daily value for a given nutrient.
Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior Volume 45, Number 6, 2013
Table 3. Post Hoc (Tukey) Results Comparing Nutrient Means Among Red Meat,
Vegetable, and Poultry Recipes From Popular Food Blogs
Nutrient
Protein Type Comparisons
Calories, kcal
Vegetable to red meat
Vegetable to poultry
Vegetable to red meat
Vegetable to poultry
Vegetable to red meat
Vegetable to poultry
Saturated fat, g
Sodium, mg
Pa
.010
.003
.012
.035
.014
< .001
a
Statistical variance in nutrient means between different protein types was calculated using 1-way analysis of variance.
blogs. A key word search of the
PubMed, Google Scholar, and Ovid
databases revealed that no studies
investigating recipes embedded within food blogs or otherwise posted on
Internet sources. A limited number
of similar studies, however, assessed
the nutrient content of recipes
distributed by television chefs. A
2012 study by Howard et al16 analyzed the nutritional content of
100 main meal recipes from 5 bestselling cookbooks authored by television chefs in the United Kingdom.
The investigators found that the recipes were excessive in total energy,
protein, fat, and saturated fat compared with World Health Organization recommendations. Although
sodium complied with recommendations, the food industry in the United
Kingdom adopted voluntary reduction of sodium in processed foods
that included canned or jarred ingredients commonly used in recipes
starting in 2006.17
A 2010 study by Silva et al18 applied a healthy recipe index to 204
recipes featured on 2 Food Network
shows and found that recipes were
ranked as less than healthful by the
index measure. Further analysis found
that the recipes analyzed were excessive in energy, saturated fat, and
sodium based on a 2,300-kcal diet.
In this study, poultry recipes were
not significantly different in terms of
saturated fat from red meat recipes
and were high in sodium content.
Post-analysis review to determine the
main sources of saturated fat and
sodium in the poultry recipes identified that half of the recipes either
featured skin-on pieces or were
poultry-based casserole dishes made
with butter, cheese, and/or cream
and other ingredients high in fat and
sodium. Blog readers may be unaware
of the unhealthy effects of adding
these ingredients, and may instead
assume that the dish is healthy
because it features chicken or turkey.
This study was a first step in determining the relationship between
social media and nutrition. Future
analysis should examine recipe
search tools and popular recipe
Web sites. Because of a limited sample, this study did not comprehensively investigate the nutrient
content of seafood recipes. Further
investigation may include an oversampling of seafood recipes to determine whether these recipes are
nutritionally balanced or whether
they contain excess amounts of riskrelated nutrients.
IMPLICATIONS FOR
RESEARCH AND
PRACTICE
This study revealed an opportunity for
dietitians and public health professionals to improve recipes accessed
on social media. Beyond helping
individual clients modify recipes
found on these sites, dietitians and
public health professionals could
address recipes posted online in
a broader manner. Opportunities
include encouraging more dietitians
to write their own blogs. Dietitians
may also partner with existing food
blog authors to add more healthy options or to create alternative, healthy
versions of each recipe using modified
ingredients. Other possible interventions include designing a branded
icon for labeling recipes that meet
specific nutritional standards.
Schneider et al 699
The sampled food blog recipes were
on average acceptable in terms of
total calories but excessive in terms
of saturated fat and sodium. When analyzed by protein type, there were
significant differences among vegetarian, poultry, and meat recipes;
poultry and red meat recipes were
significantly higher in sodium and
saturated fat. Vegetarian recipes were
lower in calories, saturated fat, and
sodium amounts compared with
other recipes.
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