Do YouTubers lead the way of healthy eating? A practice-based approach

Influencers who talk about healthy eating are extremely popular. This research enriches our understanding of the staging of everyday life through vlogs by deciphering the food practices staged by female Youtubeers, and by characterizing the constitutive elements of these practices. The research reveals that these practices are based on specific material like totemic foods, on meanings that echo followers’ concerns (plant-based diet, time optimization), and on skills serving simplicity and efficiency. Relational proximity and exemplarity (especially physical) are central in the videos. The findings of the article allow for recommending how public authorities could adopt these canons of digital communication, which are characterized here as a community of practices.