Shaping Sustainable Healthy Diets Discourse on Facebook: A Multi-Region Investigation of Stakeholders’ Communication, Social Networks and Public Engagement

Sustainable healthy diets (SHDs) are dietary patterns that meet individuals' nutrition and health while also promoting environmental sustainability. Understanding the key stakeholdersin promoting SHDs can benefit both individuals and society, especially when facing growing climate change challenges. Based on the theory of agenda setting in social media, this study aimed to answer (RQ1) who communicated SHDs via Facebook public pages and what did they communicate? (RQ2) What strategies did they use to communicate SHDs and their effectiveness with user engagement? And (RQ3) How did those communicating about SHDs connect different stakeholders? A total of 38,004 Facebook posts from 7,938 public pages mentioning SHDs were retrieved across four regions (Hong Kong, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States) from 2019 to 2022. For RQ1, we identified 11 stakeholder types and 10 major topics about SHDs of which support for food system development, a topic aligned with the social/cultural and economic sustainability of SHDs, was most salient. For RQ2, we found that the emotional appeals of anticipation, trust, and fear received greater user engagement. For RQ3, the network analysis highlights that participation by government and non-government organizations leads to better network connections. Strategies for future SHDs promotion were discussed.