A blog is an online journal where authors write articles about a particular topic. The content can be used to inform, criticize, persuade or simply entertain.
Whether you’re looking to stay physically fit, try new recipes or clear your mind, these health and wellness blogs have it all. Plus, they’re all free to follow.
Diet & Nutrition
Blogging about diet and nutrition can help readers find new ways to cook, eat healthy, and enjoy treats in moderation. Nutrition bloggers often provide easy-to-understand insights about everything from weight loss strategies to ingredient recalls.
Blogs are a form of social media that allow users to interact with experts, such as registered dietitians (RD), to foster knowledge translation and promote dietary behaviors. However, few research studies have examined the effects of health-related blogs on dietary behaviors.
Using the Intervention Mapping (IM) protocol, this study applied a theory-driven approach to develop an evidence-informed healthy eating blog written by an RD as a knowledge translation tool for French-Canadian mothers. As a first step, a needs assessment included a literature search and a qualitative study with focus groups to identify female Internet users’ beliefs and perceptions of their use of healthy eating blogs. Two behavioral outcomes were selected to inform the design of the blog, including daily intakes of Vegetables and Fruits and Milk and Alternatives to reach Canadian dietary recommendations, and meal planning.
Sleep
Besides nutrition and exercise, sleep plays an important role in health. The Sleep Junkies blog teaches readers to get the quality rest they need through research-backed articles and advice. Other blogs, such as Student Minds, provide mental health support for college students and reflect current events that shape mental wellness. The same way trade journals and scientific journals allow scientists to express their intentions, discoveries or opinions, health blogs give average people the opportunity to interact with the larger healthcare industry through their online voices.
Mental Health
Mental health is an aspect of wellness that affects your thoughts, emotions and behavior. Mental illnesses are real, and they can affect every part of your life, just like heart disease or diabetes.
A licensed marriage and family therapist, Kati Morton blogs about mental illness on her blog and YouTube channel. Her posts cover a wide range of topics, from depression and anxiety to stress and eating disorders. The blog is a great resource for anyone dealing with these issues.
ADAA, an international nonprofit organization, provides evidence-based educational resources and scientific research to help find treatments and cures for anxiety, depression and other mood disorders. Their blogs offer a variety of tips on recognizing symptoms, like the difference between seasonal affective disorder and the winter blues.
The Mighty, an online health community, offers editor-curated blogs from users “who have been there.” This includes first-person essays about coping with depression to advice for caregivers. The website also offers forums for its members.
