Analysis of Recipes Shared as ‘Healthy’ in a Popular Brazilian Website: A Cross-Sectional Study

Anice Milbratz de Camargo, Alyne Michelle Botelho, Gabriella Beatriz Irmão and Giovanna Medeiros Rataichesck Fiates ()
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Anice Milbratz de Camargo: Nutrition in Foodservice Research Centre, Graduate Program in Nutrition, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Campus Universitário João David Ferreira Lima—Trindade, Florianópolis 88040-900, Santa Catarina, Brazil
Alyne Michelle Botelho: Nutrition in Foodservice Research Centre, Graduate Program in Nutrition, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Campus Universitário João David Ferreira Lima—Trindade, Florianópolis 88040-900, Santa Catarina, Brazil
Gabriella Beatriz Irmão: Nutrition in Foodservice Research Centre, Graduate Program in Nutrition, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Campus Universitário João David Ferreira Lima—Trindade, Florianópolis 88040-900, Santa Catarina, Brazil
Giovanna Medeiros Rataichesck Fiates: Nutrition in Foodservice Research Centre, Graduate Program in Nutrition, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Campus Universitário João David Ferreira Lima—Trindade, Florianópolis 88040-900, Santa Catarina, Brazil

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 21, 1-13

Abstract: Cooking is crucial to the achievement of healthy eating habits, and the internet, as host of culinary recipes websites, is a medium for the dissemination of cooking-related content. Research has revealed that most recipes available on internet sites do not have healthy characteristics when compared to recommendations for healthy eating, even the ones promoted as ‘healthy’. This study investigated culinary recipes available on the ‘healthy eating’ section of a popular Brazilian recipe-sharing website. Recipes ( n = 814) were analyzed with a validated framework based on national dietary guidelines. Ingredients ( n = 5887) were classified according to the extension and purpose of their industrial processing. The recipes’ titles were content analyzed to identify the health-related words and phrases used. Recipes contained ultra-processed foods and not enough unprocessed or minimally processed foods, such as legumes (4.7%, n = 380), nuts and seeds (18.4%, n = 150), and fruits ( n = 32.7%, n = 263). The recipes’ titles mentioned 564 health-related terms, appealing to physical characteristics, including weight loss, and fads, such as gluten-free, dukan, low-carb, detox, fitness, ripped body, and belly burner. Therefore, the ‘healthy’ recipes available on the Brazilian recipe-sharing website presented many aspects not in accordance with national dietary guidelines.

Keywords: internet recipes; food processing; culinary recipes; website; qualitative framework (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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