









































Communication, Society and Media 
ISSN 2576-5388 (Print) ISSN 2576-5396 (Online) 

Vol. 3, No. 4, 2020 
www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/csm 

1 
 

Original Paper 

Change Your Diet, Cure Your Illness: The Content and 

Consequences of Chronic Illness Food Blogs 
Gabrielle G. Gonzales1* 

1 University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, United States 
* Gabrielle G. Gonzales, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, United States 

 

Received: August 4, 2020     Accepted: August 20, 2020     Online Published: September 13, 2020 

doi:10.22158/csm.v3n4p1                         URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.22158/csm.v3n4p1 

 

Abstract 

This year, the World Health Organization expects chronic disease to account for 75 percent of all deaths 

worldwide. The internet is an increasingly popular source of health information for those suffering from 

chronic illness. Online blogs, numbered at 152 million have become one of the most popular forms of 

web content. Specifically, healthy food blogs have emerged, enabling experts and non-experts alike to 

dispense health and diet information to large numbers of people. However, blogging in the social 

sciences remains an understudied phenomenon. This project studies the messaging of 65 popular chronic 

illness healthy food blogs and the potential consequences of the messages including the role of race, 

gender, and socioeconomic status. I find that two narratives persist on the blogs—the failure of western 

medicine to heal illness and the benefits of altering diet. These narratives result in empowerment through 

individual agency and community building for the bloggers. The messages on the blogs are also 

endangering in their individualization of health, side-stepping structural explanations for health. This 

research demonstrates chronic illness food blogs as sites for examining the dual effect of 

self-empowerment through health knowledge and the impact of surveillance and policing of their own 

and others’ bodies. 

Keywords 

healthism, illness, food, social media, agency, gender 

 

1. Introduction 

As chronic illness is on the rise worldwide, experts and non-experts alike have stepped in to solve the 

health issues of millions. Besides medical doctors as a source for health information, the internet is now 

one of the most popular ways that people find information about health issues. In fact, 8 in 10 Americans 

turn to the internet for health information (PEW, 2011). A unique site to examine the dissemination of 



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health information on the internet is through the healthy food blogs of women suffering from chronic 

illnesses. Women healthy food bloggers and the experiences they record in their online blogs illustrate 

the struggle to become well, as a woman, in today’s society and are writing en masse on the internet 

about how to cure, heal, and manage illness and health through food and diet. They are influential 

through the sphere of social media, especially Instagram. Instagram accounts connected to healthy food 

blogs have upwards of one million followers. Many of these bloggers go on to publish cookbooks and 

make a name for themselves in the world of food and health (Technorati, 2014). Food blogs are unique in 

their ability to allow individuals to be cited as experts and are relatively free of gatekeeping (Meyers, 

2012; Ritzer& Jurgenson, 2010). Despite their enormous popularity, there has been little research done 

on food blogs across disciplines (Rodney et al., 2017; Dejmanee, 2015). With the rise in popularity of 

social media outlets like Instagram, Facebook, snapchat, and twitter these blogs have gained immense 

popularity as sources of information on health, wellness, and diet. 

Food blogs and concurrent messages about health and food are significant because of their sociological 

and broader significance. They are a publicly popular yet academically understudied phenomena. They 

are potentially influential as they attract hundreds of thousands of followers who buy the bloggers’ 

cookbooks, like their posts and comment on their Instagram pages (Johnston et al., 2013; Trivedi-Grenier, 

2008). An exploration of health and wellness food blogs is a rich site to explore attitudes about health and 

diet in relation to food and morality. The research question addressed in this paper is: what cultural and 

moral frames about health and food emerge in chronic illness healthy food blogs? 

For this article, I examine frames from chronic illness focused healthy food blogs two narratives persist 

on the blogs—the failure of western medicine to heal the women and the benefits of altering diet and 

lifestyle. These narratives result in empowerment through individual agency and community building for 

the bloggers. Simultaneously, the messages on the blogs are endangering in the tendency individualize 

health, drawing upon healthism and side-stepping structural explanations for health. This research 

demonstrates chronic illness food blogs as sites for examining the dual effect of self-empowerment 

through health knowledge and the impact of surveillance and policing of their own and others’ bodies, 

especially bodies that are viewed as unacceptable in today’s society.  

Chronic Illness and Western Medicine 

Chronic illness is a major leading cause of death. Chronic illness or disease (Note 1) includes diabetes, 

obesity, cancer, high blood pressure or any other condition that “lasts a year or more and require ongoing 

medical attention and/or limit activities of daily living” (Warshaw, 2006). The World Health 

Organization estimates that three quarters of all deaths will be the result of chronic disease in 2020 

(WHO). The health industry, fitness industry, health and food corporations, pharmaceutical companies, 

western medicine, and the government are attempting to address these perceived problems and all make 

up the “domain” (Figert, 1995) of chronic illness. Western medical doctors are often those who patients 



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suffering from chronic illness come face to face with as a first line of defense in combatting their illness. 

However, many chronic conditions cannot be solved by traditional western medical approaches and/or 

little research has yet been performed on the many chronic illnesses that exist.  

An alternative approach taking hold is the belief by many that food and diet are a large part of the solution 

to a variety of chronic illnesses. This is especially true in the lives of food bloggers, when conventional 

western medicine may fail to address and cure these illnesses. Healthy food bloggers suffering from 

illnesses and broader health concerns are writing en masse on the internet about how to cure, heal, and 

manage illness and health through food and diet, reflecting a larger population also suffering from similar 

conditions. These food bloggers are also lay experts (Epstein 1995) whose personal, individual 

knowledge related to their own health journeys supersedes western medical advice. Cairns and Johnston 

(2015), in their research on gendered messages about food and body, claim that expert knowledge is 

essential to healthy eating discourses in the United States. While I agree, I also bring light to how 

non-expert, or lay knowledge is also essential to healthy eating discourse. Therefore, this project 

contributes knowledge on how lay people become experts in specialized fields outside of traditional 

expert knowledge. 

Healthism and Medicalization 

The current political and economic context of neoliberalism has fostered an individualized approach to 

health labeled “healthism” (Crawford, 1980). Healthism focuses on individual responsibility and moral 

imperatives, labeling certain foods as good and bad and ultimately certain bodies as good (thin, white) 

and bad (fat, of color). The underlying belief of healthism is that good health will lead to happiness 

(Contois, 2015; Bacon, 2015). In many ways, healthism parallels religion in the belief that following a 

certain set of rules or mandates will lead to salvation/happiness. Cairns and Johnston look at what they 

call the “do-diet”, a modern, gendered formation of healthy eating. They assert that the do-diet allows 

women to feel empowered in choosing to eat healthy in today’s neoliberal world. Women face the 

challenge of expressing agency through consumer choice while also constraining themselves through 

disciplining the body through diet. Both Cairn’s and Johnston’s sample and my own demonstrate 

alignment with the individualization of health, risk avoidance, and health as a moral duty (healthism).  

My sample is unique in that the chronic illness healthy food bloggers are a population who have not 

successfully avoided risk and are plagued by health problems as opposed to existing in a state of peak 

health. My research helps answer the broader sociological question of how individuals with chronic 

illness negotiate their identities in a context of healthism and more broadly, how any individual contends 

with the mandates of healthy eating in today’s neoliberal context.  

Food Blogs, Gender, and Self Help 

In the United States, self-help literature has been popular for decades among the masses, traditionally 

written by experts in the field and aimed to solve people’s problems on an individual level. Today, blogs 



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have become a new avenue of self-help information written by everyday people. The purpose of self-help 

books is to provide people with individual solutions to their problems. Self-help literature throughout 

history reflects larger societal and cultural understandings of the time related to the concepts of self and 

self-identity (McGee, 2005; Merce Mur Effing, 2009). For example, McGee (2005) discusses the need 

for people today to maintain marriageability and employability in today’s social and political 

environment of insecurity and the resulting self-help literature that surfaced to advise people in securing 

employment and marriage (12).  

The themes of self-help literature related to healthy food blogs include the focus on individual 

transformation and the creation of the self. Blogs are contemporary representations of individual 

perspectives situated within a broader context and therefore provide valuable information about how 

lived experiences, however self-censored, are reflected within health discourse. These social media 

platforms serve as interactive public diaries. As J. Rak, an academic in the field of English and film 

studies, writes that, “blogging [...] is about the act of writing one’s self into existence for others to read 

and comment upon” (Rak, 2005, p. 176). Because of this, blogs are the perfect site to examine how 

individuals are discussing their “selves” in connection to food and health and a public conversation 

around these posts.  

The existing previous research on food blogs in the social sciences looks at their gendered content 

(McGaughey, 2010; Noren, 2011). Women dominate the blogosphere as both producers of food blogs 

and consumers (Cairns & Johnston, 2015; Matchar, 2013; Parsons, 2015). For this reason, scholars have 

approached food blogs from gendered and feminist perspectives (Rodney, Cappeliz, Oleschuk, & 

Johnston, 2017) Academics have also researched how blogs are representative of disordered eating 

behaviors (Boepple & Thompson, 2014; Lynch, 2010). My research extends the analysis of self-help into 

the internet and more specifically, blogosphere, demonstrating how self-help alters and adapts to changes 

in technology. 

 

2. Method 

This paper examines the messages and framing of popular) chronic illness healthy food blogs 

(n=63)—defined by the presence of an illness, disease, or health condition negatively affecting the life of 

the blogger. Data for this project are collected from two main sources—personal health and wellness 

food blogs and personal Instagram accounts linked to these blogs. In order to determine which blogs 

qualified for consideration, a google search of “healthy food blogs” was conducted as a way of purposive 

homogenous sampling for those who identify as healthy food bloggers (Kemper, Stringfield, Teddlie, 

2003). This approach was used by Lynch (2010), a public health scholar who researched perceptions of 

food and exercise in a community of food bloggers. I used this approach to assemble a list of 200 healthy 

food blogs. First I performed a google search of “healthy food blogs”. I clicked on every link that 



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appeared. Usually, the results of the search yielded links to sites of lists of healthy food blogs that had 

been created by an outside source. I recorded the name of each of the blogs that showed up on each of the 

links. I did this until I reached a sample of 200+ blogs.  

Next, I went to each blog site’s “About” page. With the exception of one or two blogs, all blogs have 

“About” or “FAQ” pages. In order to be included in this research project, the blog author needed to 

mention any of these key words: “healthy”, “wholesome”, “whole foods”, “wellness”, “clean eating”, 

“food as medicine” and/or make a connection between food and health. These words denote, from the 

blogger’s perspective, a particular perspective and explicitly state the importance of the connection 

between food and health. If the blog’s “about” page connected food and health the next step was to go to 

their Instagram profiles. Once I reached 200 blogs I went through each blog to collect data on these 

variables: gender of blogger, age range of blogger, nationality, race/ethnicity, geographic location, start 

date of blog, level of expertise in food and health (if any), type of diet or food preference, description of 

health journey (if any). For about ¼ of the blogs, this was relatively easy information to find and figure 

out. The gender was easy to identify through traditional gender markers such as dress, makeup, and 

identification as a mom. I determined the relative age range of the blogger through their reference to their 

age as a “20-something” or “30-something”. If they did not explicitly mention age, I used pictures that 

they provided of themselves on the blog and the ages of their children (if mentioned) to estimate many of 

the women bloggers to be in their 30s. Statistically, data has also shown (Meyers, 2012) that most 

bloggers are women in their 30s. I determined geographic location usually by the explicit mention of 

where the blogger lived in their about page. If they did not provide this information, I went to their 

Instagram page. Some bloggers’ Instagram profile pages provide location information. If this 

information was absent I scrolled through the profile’s Instagram feed to look for any location tags. 

Location tags are available when posting on Instagram to identify your location.  

In terms of nationality, I used geographic location to clue me in to their nationality. I assumed the blogger 

was American if they lived in the United States, appeared white (the presence of light skin color), and did 

not mention being of another nationality, race, or ethnicity. For those bloggers who were not American, 

most of them discussed this in their “about” pages. They might say “I’m a Melbourne based food blogger, 

born and raised here” or “I’m one of the UK’s top food bloggers”, for example. I assumed the blogger 

was white if they had light/pale white skin unless they mentioned being mixed race or an ethnic last name. 

One white appearing woman mentioned that she kept her maiden name “Garcia” when she married 

because she was proud of her Latino heritage on her father’s side. I then categorized her as white/mixed 

ethnicity. If the blogger had dark skin and was American and lived in the United States and did not 

mention their race/ethnicity I categorized them as Black/African American in terms of race and ethnicity. 

Bloggers with Indian background, Middle East Background, or Asian background usually identified 

themselves as such.  



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I recorded level of expertise if the blogger mentioned having education or expertise in the area of food, 

medicine, or nutrition. I assumed they had no expertise if they did not mention. To determine the start 

dates of the blogs I used a variety of techniques if it was not made immediately visible in the about 

section through the blogger saying something like “I’ve been blogging since 2010”. Because the layouts 

of blogs are all different I could only employ some techniques successfully on some blogs. On a simple 

blog layout, I was able to scroll to the bottom of the page where there was located a horizontal bar of 

numbers with arrows on either side. I was able to go the last page of posts and click on the very first post. 

The date was usually recorded at the top of the post and I was able to determine the date of the first blog 

post. 

Chosen blogs posts and Instagram posts (including image, caption, and comments) were coded using a 

grounded theory approach that combines deductive and inductive methods also known as abduction. The 

starting place for developing codes come from the initial research questions—informed by previous 

research and literature on this topic (Strauss & Corbin, 1990). The data are analyzed in relation to the 

research questions but theory is constructed from the data itself. 

The blogs posts and Instagram posts were uploaded into a data analysis software called MAXQDA. 

Through close reading of these posts, initial open coding took place, a process that allows for the 

description and categorization of portions of the blogs and Instagram posts based on their content. This 

entails identifying common words and themes and attaching a code to them and then writing initial 

memos about the data. Then another round of selective or “focused” coding occurred, which continued to 

identify important themes while eliminating others that no longer seem relevant. A codebook of relevant 

codes was created listing the codes and specific descriptions of the codes including examples and criteria 

for inclusion. Then focused coding took place, helping to refine the conceptual categories through the 

writing of advanced memos, turning codes into themes and concepts (Charmaz, 2006). When data 

saturation was reached, or no new data emerged the themes solidified and I wrote further memos about 

the data leading to potential answers to the research questions and further hypotheses (Bengtson, 

Endacott, Kang, Gonzales, & Silverstein, 2017; Kang et al., 2019). 

 

3. Result 

Almost every chronic illness healthy food blogger engages with two narratives related to their healthy 

journey: the benefits of altering diet and lifestyle and the failure of traditional medicine to address their 

health concerns. In this section I document how these women food bloggers discuss these two narratives. 

I highlight the idea put forth by the bloggers that eating “real food” rather than engaging in modern 

medicine, is the path to a happier and healthier life, as well as the critical role of individual agency. In fact, 

it is the failure of western medicine that is the catalyst for the women to take their health into their own 

hands, utilizing their agency as individuals in a neoliberal world. My research positions these (mostly) 



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white women food bloggers as subjects who both reinforce harmful individualizing ideology related to 

healthism while at the same time resist the imperatives of healthism and medicalization. They are 

complex subjects who exist at the intersection of race and class privilege while experiencing conflict with 

medical experts and the medical industry at large. 

The Failure of Western Medicine 

A major theme from the blogs is the failure of traditional western medicine to address the women’s health 

issues. From diagnosis to treatment, western medicine seems to fail these women at every step. Bloggers 

point to this failure as the reason for why they took their health into their own hands or took “control of 

their health” as many bloggers say. Bloggers experience misdiagnosis, a lack of resolution for their 

health problems, and feel they are overprescribed pharmaceuticals, none of which get to the root cause of 

their chronic illness.  

In terms of misdiagnosis and lack of resolution for their illness, bloggers say: 

“Doctors were useless at figuring out what was wrong. Spending almost 7 years going from 

specialist to specialist with no resolution. Not once was the diet or food allergies discussed.” 

“After multiple tests and visits to doctors I was still left with no concrete solutions or 

remedies for my restless nights of agonizing pain.”  

“I went to numerous doctors, who just didn’t have a clue what was going on with me. I became 

agitated and stopped seeking medical help because quite frankly I was frustrated!” 

These bloggers demonstrate the time spent, the multiple doctors consulted, with no real results or relief 

from chronic ailments. They mention that diet was never mentioned and that as a result of the lack of 

resolution, they became frustrated and remained in pain. Earthy Andy paints a vivid picture of her 

ailments and what it was like to live and suffer on a daily basis,  

Thousands of dollars have been spent on specialists and doctors, medications, and yet never 

have I achieved much of anything other than a short fix. The cycle of my problems always 

came back or did not leave at all. This included a long list of chronic stomach pains and 

digestive issues, celiac disease, fatigue, asthma, allergies, brain fog, leaky gut syndrome, 

IBS, mood swings, irregular menstrual cycles, candida overgrowth, hypothyroidism, and 

skin problems.  

Bloggers mention their doctors prescribing them medications and the bloggers’ refusal to treat their 

illnesses with these pharmaceuticals. For example,  

“After diagnosis, I saw conventional and unconventional doctors for years, each of them 

throwing prescription medications and bio-identical hormones at me, but I knew that wasn't the 

path I wanted to follow.”  

 

 



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From another food blogger,  

“After two years of struggle my neurologist suggested adding yet another daily medication to 

my prescription regimen—a treatment plan that wasn’t working anyway. I kindly rejected her 

suggestion and drove home thinking, “There must be another way.” 

Pharmaceuticals often failed to get to the root cause of the health problems or address the health problems 

in a useful way. One of the most popular bloggers in my data (Deliciously Ella at 1.4 million Instagram 

followers) says,” 

I was prescribed a cocktail of medication, but unfortunately they had limited success in 

managing the condition and after about a year I hit rock bottom, both physically and mentally. 

At this point, I started looking into other ways of managing the condition and began researching 

diet and lifestyle.” 

As is evident in Deliciously Ella’s quote, the role of individual agency is critical in healing and 

finding solutions outside of western medicine. She points out that she began to educate herself on 

diet and lifestyle. Many bloggers have the same realization. There is a procession of events that 

occurs in most of the bloggers’ health journeys. First is the failure of western medicine and 

pharmaceuticals, then is the realization that something outside of the advice of western medicine 

must be done in order to heal. This translates into women educating themselves and taking their 

health into their own hands. 

“In this discovery and quest for natural healing, I realized that if I wanted to heal, I 

would need to be the key player in my wellness. Even doctors with the best intentions 

could not care for me on a molecular level, only I could do that.”  

The method of taking health into their own hands, or this “other way”/alternate solution is changing their 

diet and realizing the power of whole foods and a healthier diet, 

“At the age of 12, I was taking 96 pills a week. Not so much your ideal childhood. Unfortunately, 

back then I had no idea that the food I was consuming was literally killing me. My doctors never 

mentioned diet to me, so it wasn’t important, right? I was passed around from doctor to doctor, 

and unfortunately the most they could offer me were antibiotics, which basically worked like a 

short-term band-aid.”  

Once again, the solution is in eating differently. As this blogger writes,  

“After traditional medicine failed to get to the root cause and help me with migraines, 

autoimmune disease and more health challenges, I turned to whole foods, mindfulness, 

gratitude practice, natural remedies, self-care, acupuncture and Chinese medicine for 

healing and overall wellness.” 

Earthy Andy drives this point home in one of the last sentences on her about page as does 

Danielle Walker of against all Grain, 



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The best thing I ever did for myself was to take the advice, that I should take my health into 

my own hands and “become an expert on you”. 

After a few years of suffering, multiple hospitalizations, and doctors telling me that what I ate 

wasn't a factor in my disease, I decided to take matters into my own hands and drastically 

change my diet. 

The failure of western medicine forced these women to find alternate solutions to their health 

problems. The following section continues with the themes of individual agency and benefits of 

changing diet and lifestyle as solutions to the failure of western medicine. 

The Benefits of Healthy Eating 

After modern westernized medicine fails to address the women’s health problems, the women take their 

healthy into their own hands. They do this through educating themselves on alternate forms of healthcare 

and alter their diet and lifestyle leading to relief from chronic illness. It is evident from the blogs that 

these changes result in empowerment, health, and happiness for the bloggers, freeing them from lives 

previously spent ill. Bloggers note a critical point in their journey where they realize that changing their 

diet will change their lives. For example, one food blogger writes in her “About” section:  

Instead of feeling better after my diagnosis, I continued to suffer many months of deteriorating 

health until I made the transition to the Autoimmune Protocol, slowly reversing vitamin and 

mineral deficiencies and greatly improving my health. 

 

She makes it clear that it wasn’t until she changed her diet and lifestyle through the “Autoimmune 

protocol” that she started to feel better. Another woman points to real food as a way that her and her 

family began to heal, 

“Through good, natural, real food my family has overcome Hashimoto’s Disease, chronic 

migraines, IBS, severe asthma and eczema.” Another blogger says: “In the midst of dealing with 

a ton of health conditions, I realized I could help heal myself by eating REAL food, instead of 

the processed junk that makes people sick.”  

And:  

“Basically, I detoxed my life, one simple step at a time, and the change was profound. It 

literally changed my entire life. Yes, you read that right. Toxins were the trigger to it all, and 

living a life less toxic is what I needed to do to truly heal.” (bold type from blogger) 

Pervasive throughout my body of data is the role of the individual blogger as agent with the power to 

change their diet. The use of “I” statements throughout the blogs is striking. This agency to eat “real 

food” or less toxic food is the key in healing, connecting the ability of the individual person to change 

their diet.  



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Bloggers point out that not only are they healed but they are happier and overall healthier as a result of 

changing their diet. An example of this from a blogger states, 

“I can happily report that since I changed my diet I have been free of all stomach pain. My knees 

& shoulders feel great, and are no longer inflamed. I now can be in the water surfing for hours 

without any pain. I was able to free my body from all the inflammation and today I am healthier 

and happier than ever before.” 

Another writes, 

“I began by cutting out the foods that I believed were causing me discomfort–> gluten, meat, 

dairy products, processed sugar and processed foods. I started incorporating more fibre from 

fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and gluten free whole grains. By making these changes to my diet 

and adjusting my lifestyle I noticed myself feeling more energised, happy and healthy.” 

And, 

“I KNOW, I know in my bones that real food is the key to health, and a healthy, thriving life is 

the key to happiness.” Not only will real food heal but it will make you a happier, healthier 

person. The link between health and happiness is made over and over again throughout the 

blogs.  

The connection between health and happiness is striking and is reminiscent of religion and the promise of 

salvation. The relationship between health and happiness is also well documented in research on 

advertising, demonstrating that in order to sell products to consumers, corporations inspire buying 

through appeals to happiness. Similarly, these women food bloggers are “selling” their approaches to diet 

through happiness. 

The two narratives presented above: the failure of western medicine and the benefits of changing diet and 

lifestyle illustrate a tension between what I term empowerment and endangerment. A focus on individual 

behavior and responsibility is a source of empowerment for the bloggers who find freedom in making 

their own decisions and choices about their health. Empowerment is also found in creating community 

and helping others in similar situations. At the same time, an individualized approach to health (as 

opposed to a structural approach) reinforces ideas that are harmful to disadvantaged populations without 

the privilege or access to take control of their health in the same way (for example, access to certain foods 

and grocery stores). Consequences of these narratives include the endangerment of the audience and the 

broader population. The individualizing of social problems ignores structural and institutional 

mechanisms for health issues and inequalities and potentially misinforms audiences on health issues.  

Empowerment 

The women bloggers frame individual agency through a lens of empowerment. They push back on 

modern medicine and resist medicalization by western doctors, asserting alternative routes to health. 

They take on the task of fixing their health problems themselves in order to help others in a similar 



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situation, fostering community around their illnesses, providing accessible information, and empowering 

others in similar situation. This is often made clear in the mission statements of the blogs. For example, 

“Here at The Castaway Kitchen, our mission is to spread the word that food does heal. That you 

can embrace the dietary and lifestyle changes that will change your life.”  

There is an effort made to relate to those out there in the world suffering from similar symptoms and 

illnesses. In this way, not only are the bloggers empowering themselves, they are attempting to help 

others create community among those with similar issues. Deliciously Organic writes, 

“Chronic disease and health issues can leave you feeling helpless. With all of the conflicting 

advice about food and health, you need solid advice. You need someone who understands. My 

goal here at Deliciously Organic is to give you sound advice, vibrant recipes that your whole 

family will love and help you walk down the path towards better health  

Another woman says, 

“I am now living my best life through food freedom and I am so excited to encourage 

and support others who may be fighting the same battles. A few years ago, if you were to 

tell me that I’d one day be free from my mystery food allergies, energy deficits, and thyroid 

problems, I would have thought you were crazy. But I’m here to tell you, that there is hope! 

There is hope that you can turn your health struggles into a health success story.” 

The message and goal to help others who are suffering is clear in Deliciously Ella’s about page. She says,  

We knew we wanted to bring what we were doing to a wider audience though, as we wanted 

make delicious plant-based food even more accessible. So shortly after opening the deli, we set 

about starting the larger, and most effective way of reaching the most people possible, which 

was to launch our food products business. We’re only getting started on our journey, but our 

core purpose has remained the same from when I wrote my first recipe, which is to share the 

joys and benefits of plant based living. It gave me my life and health back, and between us we 

can help millions of others too.  

Nutrition Stripped also discusses accessibility, 

We believe people should have access to the education they need to support their health in order 

to make small changes at a time—an ambitious goal, but one that’s a priority for us. While we’re 

a health and nutrition company and yes, a business, one that sells products, we’re also a 

company that shares our educational work and content largely for free. 

The empowerment felt by these women is similar to what is described by Alondra Nelson (2011) in her 

discussion of the People’s Free Health Clinics of the Black Panther Party in the 1970s. She looks at the 

concept of “self-health” in the clinics and writes, “Self-health was an important and transformative 

practice among feminist health radicals. ‘Know your body, know thyself’ Armour remembered. ‘Had I 

not been doing {self-examination], I might not even be here today’” (89). The PFHC were a structural 



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challenge to medicalization while the food bloggers challenge the medical establishment on an 

individualized level. However, both foster community and in this way, are collective. As part of a larger 

collective, white women food bloggers are part of a community struggle to alter and change western 

medical knowledge structures, provide accessible information, and help others in similar situations. 

Although the context of white women chronic illness healthy food bloggers and women of color in the 

People’s Free Health Clinics is vastly different, there is a parallel between the resulting empowerment 

felt for both groups of women by taking their health into their own hands. However, the white women 

food bloggers focus on individualized approaches to self-health as opposed to the institutional and 

structural perspective adopted by the Black Panther Party. 

Empowerment is also found by these women through resisting medicalization. Women activists and 

organizers in Figert’s (1995) research resisted medicalization by a variety of interest groups involved in 

the domain of LLPDD and PMS as psychiatric disorders. The women with chronic illnesses in my 

sample (contested illness) are also resisting medicalization, or rather, their contested illnesses themselves 

cannot be medicalized. When offered medications, these women refuse medication in favor of taking 

control into their own hands and out of the hands of modern medicine and doctors. These chronic 

contested illnesses are yet to be medicalized in a traditional sense or cannot be medicalized because there 

is not medical research demonstrating the origin of these chronic illnesses and thus a treatment for them. 

A result of this issue in the lives of these women bloggers forcing women to have to advocate for 

themselves in the face of medical authority.  

The two main narratives of the blogs—the failure of western medicine and the impact of altering diet and 

lifestyle result in empowerment for the food bloggers. They are empowered as agents in control of their 

own health, finding solutions where western medicine could not. They also foster community and aim to 

provide accessible education and information for their audiences. 

Endangerment 

While the women food bloggers use their individual agency to feel empowered and foster community, 

the messages about food and lifestyle proposed by the food bloggers are not only empowering but also 

endangering. The bloggers potentially endanger audiences on three levels: by individualizing social 

problems, through a dogmatic policing of diet and lifestyle, and giving out possible misinformation. 

A source of endangerment is that the information on the blogs leads audiences to rely on individual level 

explanations and solutions for their health problems, sidestepping institutional and structural forces that 

shape health outcomes. Numerous quotes from “About” pages reveal messages such as this from Well 

Nourished,  

“Change begins with you as an individual but ultimately shapes your family, shapes your world. 

I believe that without good health there’s not much else.” 



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Traditional neoliberal focuses on causes of health is largely individualized, “The focus on proximate risk 

factors, potentially controllable at the individual level, resonates with the values and belief systems of 

western culture that emphasize both the ability of the individual to control his or her personal fate and the 

importance of doing so (Becker, 1993)”. This approach is particularly seductive for a variety of interest 

groups, including white women food bloggers because it targets certain core values of American society. 

In addition, white women food bloggers possess the resources to achieve levels of health through 

individual intervention. Much of the food bloggers’ messages line up with ideas connected to healthism 

which places responsibility on the individuals turning food choices into moral imperatives (Connolly & 

Prothero, 2008; Cairns et al., 2013; Moore, 2010). Healthism does not challenge inequality on a 

structural level, individualizing the perceived problem. The belief that an individualized approach to 

health will solve health problems is misleading and endangering. 

In addition, the messages on these food blogs are somewhat dogmatic and result in potential policing of 

others’ lifestyles. There is a general lack of acknowledgment in the blogs that different populations have 

different and unequal access to healthy foods and services. In Foucault’s concept of “governmentality” 

(1991) individuals engage in self-surveillance and self-governance despite explicit or overt coercion. By 

regulating themselves through diet and lifestyle changes, these bloggers are to some extent engaging in 

self surveillance while also surveilling the lifestyle practices of outsiders. The assumption that lifestyles 

are solely dependent upon individual choices as opposed to lifestyles as a result of institutional structures 

leads to the blame of populations that do not fall in line with acceptable ideas of health. This is especially 

apparent in populations whose bodies do not fit into the mold of what an acceptable woman’s body looks 

like in today’s society—white and thin. For example, within the context of the current “obesity 

epidemic”, bodies (especially fat bodies) face continued surveillance in the name of public health. 

Also, the bloggers guide audiences to question the medical establishment that could potentially be 

helpful depending on what illness they may be suffering from. For example, in the case of diabetes, if an 

audience member with diabetes refuses to see a doctor based upon the advice of a food blogger, their 

medical concerns will go unaddressed and may worsen. As most of these food bloggers are not medical 

experts with years of training, it is possible that their personal experiences with diet and lifestyle may not 

be right for everyone and in fact can be harmful, especially if the information provided by the blogger is 

incorrect.  

The empowerment of chronic illness food blogging is balanced out by the potential endangerment from 

the messages on these blogs. Food bloggers tend to individualize health, leading to the belief that 

everyone is responsible and in control of their own health, ignoring structural and institutional forces that 

shape the lifestyles of individuals. This can lead to surveillance and policing of their own and others’ 

bodies, especially bodies that are viewed as unacceptable in today’s society. And finally, misinformation 



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about health that is transmitted through the blogs to large audiences is dangerous to those from treatable 

ailments.  

 

Table 1. Descriptive Variables of Blogs (n=63) 

 # of followers (in 

thousands) 

Nationality Gender Race 

Eat Beautiful 10.5 USA Woman White 

The Curious 

Coconut 

12.4 USA Woman White 

Real Food with 

Dana 

Yum Universe  

Low FODMAP 

Inspiration 

Salted Plains 

Grassfed Salsa 

The Healthy 

Hunter 

Clean Eating 

Kitchen 

She Likes Food 

Rubies and 

Radishes 

Living Healthy 

with Chocolate 

Meghan Telpner 

Feed me Phoebe 

Ascension 

Kitchen 

The Roasted Root 

Well Nourished 

Healthy little 

Vittles 

Thank Heavens 

Jessica in the 

12.5 

 

12.7 

13 

 

15 

15.5 

16.2 

 

19.4 

 

19.4 

22.8 

 

23.4 

 

23.6 

23.9 

26.4 

 

26.7 

27.6 

27.6 

 

27.8 

30.8 

USA 

 

USA 

UK 

 

USA 

USA 

AUS 

 

USA 

 

USA 

USA 

 

BR 

 

CAN 

USA 

NZ 

 

USA 

AUS 

USA 

 

NOR 

USA 

Woman 

 

Woman 

Woman 

 

Woman 

Woman 

Woman 

 

Woman 

 

Woman 

Woman 

 

Woman 

 

Woman 

Woman 

Woman 

 

Woman 

Woman 

Woman 

 

Woman 

Woman 

White 

 

White 

White 

 

White 

White 

White 

 

White 

 

White 

White 

 

White 

 

White 

White 

White 

 

White 

White 

White 

 

White 

Black 



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Kitchen 

Deliciously 

Organic 

Veggie Balance 

Clean Eating 

Goddess 

With Food and 

Love 

The Garden 

Grazer 

Life of Goodness 

Unbound 

Wellness 

Sprinkle of Green 

Recipes to 

Nourish 

Root and Revel 

Real Simple Good 

Zen Belly 

Supercharged 

Food 

Gluten Free 

Cuppatea 

My Darling 

Lemon Thyme 

Downshiftology 

Cotter Crunch 

Predominantly 

Paleo 

Every Last Bite 

The Blender Girl 

Castaway Kitchen 

Healthy Little 

Peach 

Dolly and 

 

31.5 

 

32.9 

33.4 

 

39 

 

40.6 

 

41.4 

41.8 

 

45.4 

46 

 

49.2 

51 

53.8 

60.2 

 

61.8 

 

68.4 

 

71.9 

74.4 

82.8 

 

83.2 

88.2 

95 

97.2 

 

104 

 

USA 

 

USA 

CAN 

 

USA 

 

USA 

 

AUS 

USA 

 

UK 

USA 

 

USA 

USA 

USA 

AUS 

 

UK 

 

NZ 

 

USA 

USA 

USA 

 

CAN 

AUS 

CUB  

USA 

 

USA 

 

Woman 

 

Woman 

Woman 

 

Woman 

 

Woman 

 

Woman 

Woman 

 

Woman 

Woman 

 

Woman 

Woman 

Woman 

Woman 

 

Woman 

 

Woman 

 

Woman 

Woman 

Woman 

 

Woman 

Woman 

Woman 

Woman 

 

Woman 

 

White 

 

White 

White 

 

White 

 

White 

 

White 

White 

 

White 

White 

 

White 

White 

White 

White 

 

White 

 

White 

 

White 

White 

White 

 

White 

Unknown 

Latina 

White 

 

White 



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Oatmeal 

Fed and Fit 

Living Loving 

Paleo 

Simply Quinoa 

Clean Food Dirty 

City 

Autoimmune 

Wellness 

Lexi’s Clean 

Kitchen 

Mariam Mind 

Body Health 

The Vegan 8 

The Paleo Mom 

The Plant Riot 

Keto DietApp 

Inspiralized 

Kris Karr 

Madeline Shaw 

Low Carb Yum 

Lil Sipper 

Nutrition Stripped 

Against All Grain 

Earthy Andy 

Deliciously Ella 

 

107 

108 

 

108 

117 

 

121 

 

132 

 

133 

 

140 

148 

156 

171 

201 

225 

278 

292 

320 

332 

392 

1.1 million 

1.4 million 

 

USA 

USA 

 

USA 

USA 

 

USA 

 

USA 

 

USA 

 

USA 

USA 

AUS 

EUR 

USA 

USA 

UK 

USA 

USA 

USA 

USA 

USA 

UK 

 

Woman 

Woman 

 

Woman 

Woman 

 

Woman 

 

Woman 

 

Woman 

 

Woman 

Woman 

Woman 

Woman 

Woman 

Woman 

Woman 

Woman 

Woman 

Woman 

Woman 

Woman 

Woman 

 

White/Latina 

White 

 

White 

White 

 

White 

 

White 

 

White 

 

White 

White 

White 

White 

White 

White 

White 

White 

White 

White 

White 

White 

White 

 

4. Discussion 

The reach and influence of social media outlets like blogs and Instagram have greatly expanded in 

recent years. At the same time, so have the rates of chronic disease. Chronic illness food bloggers 

bridge these two worlds. This article demonstrates the role of women chronic illness food bloggers in 

providing audiences with information about health, diet, and lifestyle. There are two consistent 

narratives appearing throughout the 65 blogs—the benefits of healthy eating and the failure of western 

medicine. The failure of western medicine to address these women’s health issues propels them to find 

alternate routes of healing. The main route they find is through changing their diets, which not only 



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heals them but also allows them to find happiness. The two narratives on the blogs create both 

empowerment and endangerment. Empowerment is created through questioning the medical 

establishment, resisting medicalization, and creating community among other bloggers and audiences 

who face similar challenges. Endangerment results from individualization of health issues leading to 

the belief that each and every person is entirely in control of their own health and well-being. This is 

dangerous because it fails to acknowledge structural explanations for health differentials. The 

narratives of the blogs are also endangering because they result in the policing and surveillance of 

health behaviors. And lastly, endangering because of the possible misinformation on these blogs and 

the advice directing away from western medical practitioners with the potential to solve certain health 

ailments. 

 

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Note 

Note 1. Chronic disease and chronic illness will be used interchangeable in this article (Bernell and 

Howard 2016). 


