The internet is full of information on the wildest range of topics you could ever imagine, however not all of this content is true (or helpful). Being a coeliac individual and following a plant based lifestyle, I am no stranger to self proclaimed health gurus, ‘dieticians’ and weird people trying to sell herbs as a cure all for autoimmune diseases.
However, amongst this community I have found my love of food and wellness suitable for my needs and take great comfort in this content. Recipes videos and what I eat in a day videos from vegan creators have really improved and widened my culinary knowledge and provide awesome inspiration for what I could be making next in the kitchen.
The media I engage with most in this genre spreads across Youtube and Instagram – I have found in the past that platforms like TikTok and Tumblr can promote quite harmful and ill advised suggestions regarding food and health.
Youtube creators I enjoy the most are Amanda Ducks, Julien Solomita, Caitlin Shoemaker and Edgy Veg.
While these individuals are not dieticians or health experts, they promote a vegan lifestyle in a healthy and accessible way. The aesthetics and shots in some of their videos are undeniably amazing which definitely adds to the appeal.
The content on instagram on the other hand relies more heavily in my opinion on good quality food porn. I was actually inspired to make an instagram page myself for my creations and recreations as a DA in previous subjects.
Instagram can be more easily digestible (ha!) as it is small snippets and is a short and fast way to get what you are after. There is most definitely a continuation of the same visual vibes to those included in videos above, which is actually quite significant to the analysis of plant-based communities and their content.
There is an important point to remember when engaging in this genre of health media, and that is health is not universal. Just because someone on the internet is promoting a meal or a crazy health powder does not make them an expert. The oversaturation of the food blogging stratosphere is insane, and as a long as you consider your choice of creators and take their lifestyle with a grain of salt it should be smooth sailing.
How these creators engage with other creators, how viewers and readers engage with their content and then how they apply it to their personal life or share with their platform is very intriguing to me.
I have found many resources in local vegan Facebook groups, which they have linked from someone on Instagram, who was inspired by someone on YouTube, and now this Mac and Cheese recipe with potatoes has gone through the ringer of many minds.
With 1 person deciding to eat less meat or go meat-free every 5 minutes, there is only going to be a higher demand for research in this field. Vegan community engagement is a vital resource to people transitioning to the lifestyle.
On top of this, 1 in 70 Australians are affected by Coeliacs Disease, but a huge 80% of these people are left undiagnosed! The absolute whirlwind of misleading and frankly quite bizarre ‘home remedies’ and ‘retraining of the body’ garbage can be insanely harmful to those diagnosed.
Something interesting is that the aforementioned garbage – can often be promoted by vegan ‘health experts’ …. Interesting indeed.
PAIGE SUTTON 