Marie Claire v. Health Food Bloggers: The Hunger Diaries

As someone who blogs about food, I read many different types of food blogs. While food is a big part of them, we food bloggers all approach food differently.

I don't blog about food all the time. I talk about current events, movies, business, art, politics, etc., and randomness that happens in my life. When I visit a new restaurant or bakery, I often take pictures and share my eating out experiences. I love to bake from scratch and share recipes and pictures of food that I've made.

Other food bloggers focus on being vegan, vegetarian, eating locally, eating organically, or finding the best sushi or burritos. You name it. Food bloggers are a diverse group and we're spread across the world.

The exact number of food blogs is hard to determine, but some estimates are in the thousands at least, maybe tens of thousands. Over the years, blogs come and go. Bloggers close down their blogs all the time, start and stop again, or are just sporadic. It takes a lot of effort to keep a blog going and many may not realize this when they first start.

Successful bloggers have usually done a ton of work. Blogging is very time intensive. Food blogging adds another element, because not only is there a lot of writing, there is cooking and photographing.

If you break down the number of serious food bloggers who are consistent and are attending food blogging conferences, classes, and doing other types of work, the number may drop down to the hundreds. For those of you who may know more about this and have better numbers, please let me know in the comments. Do chime in!

All of this is to get to the health food or healthy living bloggers, who were featured in a just published piece on Marie Claire's website: The Hunger Diaries: How Health Writers Can Be Putting You at Risk.

I just learned about this article today by reading here. Some of the bloggers who were interviewed responded on their blogs as well. They are quite upset by the article and probably feel blindsided. After reading the article I can see why. Based on what they were expecting, it must feel like an ambush.

It takes a lot to open up your life on a blog. We all have feelings and emotions and risk getting hurt. I struggle with how much of that to do here. These bloggers put a lot of work into their blogs and have become quite successful. They trusted the writer to convey their words accurately and now feel very betrayed.

You can read the article yourselves, but especially take a look at the bloggers' responses as well. There are already hundreds of comments on these posts. Meghann gives a great deal of detail in her post.

Tina, Carrots 'N' Cake: My Response to the Marie Claire Article
Caitlin, Healthy Tipping Point: My Rebuttal to Marie Claire
Heather, Hangry Pants, The Marie Claire Article
Meghann, Meals and Miles: My Response

What do you think of all of this? Should the writer Katie Drummond and/or Marie Claire apologize? As a freelance writer myself, I know that sometimes what the writer gives to an editor can be changed. This may not be the same article that she wrote. We don't know.

Some others are responding to this article as well. Take a look below and I'll try and update them as I find more. Way too many articles and posts to keep updating. But here's a link to a Google search and you'll find many responses.

Rachel, Hollaback Health - Please Blog Responsibly: "The Hunger Diaries"
Chelsea, Strawberry Sweat - “The Hunger Diaries”–The Greatest Piece of Journalistic Fiction I’ve Read
Endless Beauty: The Marie Claire vs. Bloggers Controversy

From what I'm seeing, Marie Claire's editors must be dealing with a lot of angry emails about now. Marie Claire's Facebook wall is certainly active!

*Updated 10/5/2010* Marie Claire magazine gave the following response on their Facebook wall.
"Thank you for your thoughtful responses to "Hunger Diaries." Some of you wrote in anger, while others applauded us for voicing concerns about this community. We believe the outpouring of comments proves the issues raised in the piece are important. Like every article we publish, this was carefully researched, and we st...and by its content. Thank you for reaching out—we are listening!"


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Comments

lori said…
I have never heard of any of these blogs. But whatever to MC! I guess all magazine and magazine writers probably feel threatened by blogs and bloggers, esp. since so many magazines have folded int he last few years.
Lisa Johnson said…
lexlocilori - I think that could be part of it, but I guess also negativity sells by causing controversy.
MonaVie said…
Interesting post. Bloggers for food are all working for a healthy nutrition for all. It's like a family but sometimes we get arguments along the way.
Lisa Johnson said…
monavie - Thanks for the visit and comment.

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