"Bacon Bacon Bacon": Food-Related Tweets and Sentiment in Metro Detroit

V. G. Vinod Vydiswaran, Daniel M. Romero, Xinyan Zhao, Deahan Yu, Iris N. Gomez-Lopez, Jin Xiu Lu, Bradley E. Iott, Ana Baylin, Philippa Clarke, Veronica J. Berrocal, Robert Goodspeed, Tiffany C. Veinot

Abstract: Initiatives to reduce neighborhood-based health disparities require access to meaningful, timely, and local information regarding health behavior and its determinants. In this paper, we examine the validity of Twitter as a source of information for analysis of dietary patterns and attitudes. We analyze the "healthiness" quotient of food-related tweets and sentiment regarding those tweets from metropolitan Detroit. Our findings demonstrate feasibility of using Twitter to understand neighborhood characteristics regarding food attitudes and potential use in studying neighborhood-based health disparities.