To start with, we’ve got sites like AllRecipes gaining huge amounts of traffic from hungry cooks worldwide. Then you’ve got the incredibly successful Buzzfeed’s Tasty that boasts 88 million Facebook likes at the time of writing. Food online certainly looks to be a lucrative business, especially if Tasty’s hot plate that syncs to their online videos takes off this holiday season.

Perhaps the most fascinating new-world food influencers are the dedicated #foodies – self-styled lifestyle gurus that broadcast their food (and often beauty and travel) choices online to their followers. The most popular online personalities that dish out recipes and tips are able to influence vast swathes of listeners and scrollers, often presenting images of aspiration and health or, on the other hand, heart-clogging indulgence. And, much like the huge organizations like Tasty and AllRecipes, these individual food influencers stand to gain financially, too – whether that’s through ads on their blogs and videos or paid sponsorships in their content.

Online food influencers are far more reachable than TV personalities and branded content. They can respond directly to comments and the often DIY-style nature of their content (filming vlogs from the couch, posting images of food prepared in their own kitchens) can give a much more personable feel. Their ‘real-ness’ is what makes them appealing to their many followers who take inspiration from them.

It is these influencers that the Brandwatch React team decided to take a look at. What can they tell us about the dietary trends of 2017?

Who are these food influencers?

We used Brandwatch Audiences to look specifically at self-identifying food bloggers and food vloggers by analyzing words in their Twitter bios.

We found that gender-categorized authors skewed female (76% female, 21% male), finding that words like ‘Mom’ and ‘Wife’ were also prominent in bios.