Using the Blogosphere to Promote Disputed Diets

Abstract

Widely influential low-carb high fat diet (LCHF) promoters have been using social media to marshal support when contesting the nutritional recommendations provided by the National Swedish Food Agency (NFA). Political events led to an increased public awareness of the LCHF diet, which in turn provided the advocates with vital opportunities to contest the established nutritional authorities. This study explored how three of the leading promoters transact their criticisms of nutrition authorities, and how they use social media for this purpose. A longitudinal thematic analysis of the diet promoters' social media presence demonstrates that they made full use of media convergence to form opinion and attain their goals. The LCHF promoters utilized a rhetorical arsenal based in science popularization to appeal to the public and social media allowed for the spread of anecdotal evidence of individual dieters. Interestingly, social media also facilitated the advocates to network their expertise and to start science initiatives evolving from merely anecdotal methods to conventional approaches.