Healthfulness Assessment of Recipes Shared on Pinterest: Natural Language Processing and Content Analysis

Abstract

Background Although Pinterest has become a popular platform for distributing influential information that shapes users’ behaviors, the role of recipes pinned on Pinterest in these behaviors is not well understood. Objective This study aims to explore the patterns of food ingredients and the nutritional content of recipes posted on Pinterest and to examine the factors associated with recipes that engage more users. Methods Data were collected from Pinterest between June 28 and July 12, 2020 (207 recipes and 2818 comments). All samples were collected via 2 new user accounts with no search history. A codebook was developed with a raw agreement rate of 0.97 across all variables. Content analysis and natural language processing sentiment analysis techniques were employed. Results Recipes using seafood or vegetables as the main ingredient had, on average, fewer calories and less sodium, sugar, and cholesterol than meat- or poultry-based recipes. For recipes using meat as the main ingredient, more than half of the energy was obtained from fat (277/490, 56.6%). Although the most followed pinners tended to post recipes containing more poultry or seafood and less meat, recipes with higher fat content or providing more calories per serving were more popular, having more shared photos or videos and comments. The natural language processing–based sentiment analysis suggested that Pinterest users weighted taste more heavily than complexity (225/2818, 8.0%) and health (84/2828, 2.9%). Conclusions Although popular pinners tended to post recipes with more seafood or poultry or vegetables and less meat, recipes with higher fat and sugar content were more user-engaging, with more photo or video shares and comments. Data on Pinterest behaviors can inform the development and implementation of nutrition health interventions to promote healthy recipe sharing on social media platforms.

How are food influencers' recipes promoting food literacy? Investigating nutritional content, food literacy and communication techniques in Instagram recipes

“…The research of Steils and Obaidalahe (2020) has only considered how individuals themselves contribute to food literacy via commenting on recipes, but did not study how the recipe itself provides information regarding the various Nutritional value of influencers' recipes Furthermore, despite the growing popularity of food influencers on Instagram, there has been limited research evaluating the nutritional value of the recipes they promote. Previous studies have assessed the nutritional quality of recipes from various sources, including cooking television shows, recipe websites and social media platforms such as YouTube and Pinterest (Ngqangashe et al, 2018;Schneider et al, 2013;Camargo et al, 2022;Cheng et al, 2021).…”

“…Recipe-related content can display the basic instructions and ingredients needed to prepare a meal or can go beyond and provide additional information regarding meal planning, food selection, preparation and consumption (Herrera, 2021). Previous research has focused on the examination of specific facets of food literacy, such as food safety (Melville et al, 2023;Geppert et al, 2019;Barrett and Feng, 2020;Borda et al, 2014), or the nutritional value of recipes from various media sources (Ngqangashe et al, 2018;Schneider et al, 2013;Camargo et al, 2022;Cheng et al, 2021). However, to our knowledge, an investigation into food influencers' recipes in terms of observing all various aspects of food literacy together as well as examining the nutritional value has not yet been done.…”

Social Media Data Mining of Antitobacco Campaign Messages: Machine Learning Analysis of Facebook Posts

“…Social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, provide a valuable source of public health information, as one-third of US adults seek specific health information online [ 13 , 14 ]. Recognizing the critical importance of maximizing the use of these channels, in 2012, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published guidelines for developing a social media communication strategy [ 15 ].…”

The Online Cancer Nutrition Misinformation: A framework of behavior change based on exposure to cancer nutrition misinformation

“…We designed this study to explore the scope and features of cancer‐related nutrition information on a social media site, Pinterest. Pinterest is a media platform that is particularly friendly to nutrition and recipe content given its structure, visual nature, and ability to save content for later viewing 1,22‐25 . Here, we describe a content analysis intended to classify the types of cancer nutrition claims on Pinterest that stemmed from searching for cancer recipes as well as the features of this content that were used to legitimize claims.…”

“…Pinterest is a media platform that is particularly friendly to nutrition and recipe content given its structure, visual nature, and ability to save content for later viewing. 1,[22][23][24][25] Here, we describe a content analysis intended to classify the types of cancer nutrition claims on Pinterest that stemmed from searching for cancer recipes as well as the features of this content that were used to legitimize claims. We propose a conceptual framework to describe how cancer nutrition misinformation is organized and the potential pathways linking misinformation exposure, health behaviors, and clinical outcomes.…”