Like and share it: contents about healthy eating and diets on Facebook pages

This study aimed to describe and analyze contents on healthy eating and diets on Facebook pages. Twenty pages in Portuguese were selected. The forty posts with the highest number of ‘likes’ were examined through content analysis, thematic modality. The posts’ wording revealed a “dialectic of taste”, which would be solved by food recipes disseminated in the “Food Porn” fashion. Losing weight is viewed as an urgency that demands control and vigilance, where quizzes and challenges configure motivational strategies. Efforts to validate the information by means of “scientificity slogans” were observed, as well as references to health professionals. The conclusion is that the social media is pertinent to communicative interactions about eating and nutrition; however, many contents aim to promote and sell services and dietetic products, which raised questions about its potential for health promotion.

Social media; Healthy eating; Health information to the consumer; Dissemination of information