Comfort Foods and Community Connectedness: Investigating Diet Change
  during COVID-19 Using YouTube Videos on Twitter
Yelena Mejova Lydia Manikonda
Unprecedented lockdowns at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic have
drastically changed the routines of millions of people, potentially impacting
important health-related behaviors. In this study, we use YouTube videos
embedded in tweets about diet, exercise and fitness posted before and during
COVID-19 to investigate the influence of the pandemic lockdowns on diet and
nutrition. In particular, we examine the nutritional profile of the foods
mentioned in the transcript, description and title of each video in terms of
six macronutrients (protein, energy, fat, sodium, sugar, and saturated fat).
These macronutrient values were further linked to demographics to assess if
there are specific effects on those potentially having insufficient access to
healthy sources of food. Interrupted time series analysis revealed a
considerable shift in the aggregated macronutrient scores before and during
COVID-19. In particular, whereas areas with lower incomes showed decrease in
energy, fat, and saturated fat, those with higher percentage of African
Americans showed an elevation in sodium. Word2Vec word similarities and odds
ratio analysis suggested a shift from popular diets and lifestyle bloggers
before the lockdowns to the interest in a variety of healthy foods, communal
sharing of quick and easy recipes, as well as a new emphasis on comfort foods.
To the best of our knowledge, this work is novel in terms of linking attention
signals in tweets, content of videos, their nutrients profile, and aggregate
demographics of the users. The insights made possible by this combination of
resources are important for monitoring the secondary health effects of social
distancing, and informing social programs designed to alleviate these effects.