Online community

Affiliation to a community is important to all of the respondents even though it might not had been the intention to become part of an online community. Research has shown that consumers do not have a ‘strategy’ for participating in a community connected to a specific consumption interest, since: “at first an internet user will merely ‘browse’ information sources, ‘lurking’ to learn about a consumption interest” (Kozinets, 1999: 254). More of the respondents express this course of action, as they searched for an alternative to their food situation:

“(I used) a lot of inspiration in the beginning. I made food schedules based on recipes from others to learn it correctly. (…) (Signing up for Facebook groups) were to have some kind of community in the beginning, where you could ask questions and things like that"

(App. 5: l. 211-237, Signe).

The quotation indicates that in the beginning LCHF-followers searched for information without committing to anything. In time, social ties can be created in a group, which will maintain the individual member’s interest. What starts as mere information search can then transform into a source of community and understanding (Kozinets, 1999).

Four of the respondents are members of the Facebook group LCHF/Lavkarbo and all four explain how important it was to them to find a support-group when starting their new lifestyle: “(…) It was to get inspiration, and what do you do? (…) It was to use them as sparring partners and maybe also to get some kind of scientific background” (App. 6: l. 509-512, Maria K.). The respondent elaboration indicates how social ties appeared in time: "There was someone we could join a community with. (…) That was why we maintained the interest, because we could recognise other people enduring the same things as us" (App. 6: l. 532-535, Maria K.). The experience of a community helped the respondent gain and maintain interest in LCHF. The respondent did not just browse further on the Internet because in the Facebook group she experienced a shared understanding of food consumption. Food has a central role in the LCHF community as the members use the LCHF diet to convey a shared group identity (Fine, Gary Alan, 2005 in;

Johnston & Baumann, 2010).

5.2.1.1 Intellectual value

LCHF-followers value affiliation with likeminded consumers because of the intellectual value the community provides through the constantly co-created content. It is not only the sharing of the

original post that adds value to the community, it is just as much the comments and opinions for the original post that spurs discussion. The invitation to contribute, elaborate and refine the message contributes to an important asset of the online community, in that it adds intellectual value to the members (Seraj, 2012). The Facebook group tries to secure valid knowledge co-creation by stating the following guidelines: “This group is a support group available to people, who are positive towards the LCHF (Low Carb High Fat) lifestyle” (App. 21: 186). Even though everyone can become a member of the group these guidelines are supposed to help screen people, so that likeminded can find each other through this group.

All members of the Facebook group are able to answer questions or comments, which helps improve the knowledge created in the community. It is important to LCHF-followers to gain knowledge, but the source of this knowledge is just as important. The knowledge creation in the LCHF community relies on the members' engagement. Two of the respondents express their reluctance towards instructive opinions from other LCHF-followers:

"(…) The other day someone claimed that if you make vegetables-buns, you are maintaining old habits, which is mentally unhealthy to you because you obtain psychical satisfaction through eating. That is unhealthy. I totally disagree. (…) Where is your justification to say that something is outright mentally unhealthy? In that situation I'm like…" (App: 4, l. 402-235, Maria).

"(…) The principles of LCHF to me is that we eat it to get better. (…) You shouldn't go and judge others on how they might feel fine eating it (LCHF). To me it becomes a LCHF-police in some way, and I don't think that it belongs anywhere" (App. 8: l. 337-340, Xenia).

The LCHF-followers help each other reinforce the dislike of authorities through their own establishment of valid knowledge of food consumption. The official rules of the Facebook group underline that a LCHF diet should be adjusted to the individual and cannot be dictated for all members: “Remember that any way of eating LCHF is “right” if it works for you. (…) It is important to point out that the complete composition (of food) differs from person to person, and the ultimate truth of LCHF does not exits” (App. 21: 187). This underlines how it is a support-group in knowledge creation of the LHCF food regime. It helps the individual consumer to understand and embrace the LCHF lifestyle.

The online forum enables LCHF-followers to debate the rationality of practices and food items of the mainstream market, which can give rise to a legitimate fight for the inclusion of alternative food regimes in Danish food culture (Scaraboto & Fischer, 2012). When LCHF first appeared, much of the appreciated food was not available due to the market’s adjustment to the traditional food regime. One respondent explains the evolvement since then:

“It has become easier in the three years, we have followed it, because (…) more have bought it (the LCHF lifestyle), and more demand for the fat stuff has arrived. In the beginning you couldn’t even find a sour cream 38%” (App. 6: l. 397-399, Maria K.).

Fat stuff as the respondent describes certain food items are valuable according to the LCHF food regime, and the marketplace seems to have listened by offering high-fat sour cream even though it contradicts the official dietary guideline of low-fat dairy products. The community thereby helps legitimate LCHF in the market through the continuous creation of knowledge for its members but also in the increasing awareness in the surrounding market.

5.2.1.2 Social value of the community

The traditional engagement with food is often found in the private sphere and is regulated by a series of unspoken rules (Marshall, 2005). When LCHF-followers question and break some of the traditional unspoken rules, they search for alternatives to avoid standing alone. Decision-making concerning food consumption is more complex without the rituals and routines of the traditional food regime, since the understanding of what is normal has vanished (Marshall, 2005).

Consumers can through online blogs and Facebook groups share experiences and knowledge and in time create a shared identity. This type of activity supports the development of an actual community with social ties among the members, since: “A group of individuals in an online platform becomes a community through sharing of knowledge, emotion, experience, and norms”

(Seraj, 2012: 217). A respondent explains the increasing desire for sharing the consumption of food within the LCHF food regime:

“(…) Food is (often) just something you make and eat. I really like the part where you make it into something communicative (…) between people, also across computer screens and not only across a dining table” (App. 8: l. 224-228, Xenia).

In the LCHF food regime the consumption of food changes from being merely a personal project into a social project shared with likeminded consumers. The objective of the community is not to gain new friends but to create an affiliation to someone who you can relate to on some level: “(…) (LCHF) is not a friend-thing you do. (…) It is not like a friend-group or something like that”

(App. 3: l. 298-299, Janni). The community members experience a shared identity caused by the focal element of the community: food consumption. Food can facilitate a group identity:

“Because food so obviously is incorporated into self, sharing food is a symbolic way of sharing group identity” (Belk, 1988: 151). The sharing of group identity shows clearly in the number of posts where people share pictures of their food. Misrepresenting oneself as participant in this group identity threatens the LCHF communal identity and is sanctioned verbally by the other members sometimes resulting in removal of a post in the group (App. 21: 189).

In this Facebook group there is a high degree of activity, and posts without comments occur rarely. The majority of posts in the Facebook group are food pictures accompanied by texts such as: “Today’s breakfast – it’s good. (…) Have a nice weekend all” (App. 21: 195, Hanne), or:

“Good evening everyone, now it’s time for dinner. What’s on the menu at your place?” (App. 21:

195, Charlotte). Posts such as these have no other purpose than to foster interaction among the members. The community members are first of all interested in the possible interaction in relation to their picture of food consumed. This is a good example of consumption in a postmodern community; the consumers consume more for the possible linking value than for the actual consumption object (Cova & Cova, 1997). By posting pictures of LCHF food the individual consumer expresses the integration into the LCHF group identity and it helps to enhance the perception that the consumer is significantly involved in LCHF food consumption (Holt, 1995).

Some of the posts in the Facebook group are private revelations that might not be expected published in a rather public group with more than 20.000 members. The consumption practice of LCHF binds the consumers together through the shared group identity of being a LCHF-follower.

This appears to open up for stories of personal matters such as illness. Examples of such posts that reflect the strong tie among the members are:

“Good morning everyone. Does anyone have experience with cancer and low carb diet?

(…) Someone who can help me – I must that add my appetite is sometimes completely gone, my taste buds and smells have changed remarkably since I started chemo (…)”

(App. 21: 196, Kirsten).

“I experience way fewer symptoms around my period after I started eating LCHF. Anyone recognises this?” (App. 21: 196, Stine).

“Help, I suffer from constipation – I eat prunes to remedy it – but what am I doing wrong? And how can I avoid it in the future? I drink a lot of water all day long” (App. 21:

197, Mette).

Even though the community members are not friends or know each other in real life, they rely on each other’s assistance to get through personal problems related to their diet. This online group is real, important and trustworthy to its members, and they strengthen the community commitment through the interaction ritual of experience sharing (Seraj, 2012). The online forum becomes a free space, where LCHF-followers can come forward with all kinds of questions without the risk of being labelled outsiders or fanatics (Kristensen et al., 2011). The stories and intimate revelations provide social value in the community. The membership of the rather informal virtual community ensures the LCHF-followers that they are never alone (Cova & Cova, 2002). The members feel a strong connection to the LCHF food regime but perhaps an even stronger connection towards each other (Muniz & O’Guinn, 2001), as they guide each other on how to live the ‘LCHF life’.

5.2.1.3 Cultural value

The community’s group cohesion is strengthened by the members’ experience of “moral responsibility” (Muniz & O’Guinn, 2001: 424). The members feel a responsibility for learning new LCHF-followers the values and culture of the community, which demonstrates their loyalty to the community (Muniz & O’Guinn, 2001). One of the respondents expresses how the moral responsibility includes looking out for and helping others in living the LCHF lifestyle:

“I’m more interested in – not so much ‘What can I eat’ but more when people mention personal stuff (…). It could be ‘I would like to loose weight’ or ‘I only need to loose two more kg.’ then I will say: ‘Are you sure, you need to loose those two kg? Is it related to your BMI? Or is it in relation to what you feel satisfied with? (…) I experience that a lot of people have difficulties letting go of the rules (from the traditional regime)” (App. 6: l.

561-601, Maria K.).

This respondent is looking after people who misunderstand the principles of LCHF. She perceives it as her personal quest to make sure other members do not transfer old habits and restrictions from the traditional regime to the LCHF food regime. She encourages people to let go of the old perception of health and instead to consume food properly from a LCHF perspective. The fact that more experienced LCHF-followers help newcomers is a cultural value that is encouraged by the Facebook group’s guidelines: “It is completely acceptable and encouraged for more experienced members to help by commenting if (for instance) an ingredient is not LCHF or is liberal. New (members) should NOT take this as a personal assault, but as help” (App. 21: 188). Such responsibilities are imposed on experienced LCHF-followers by the founders of the Facebook group and are enforced by the group members. An example is visible in a member’s request for adherence to the group rules in guidance of newcomers:

“Could we please agree that in here we guide according to the Diet Doctor? And if you’re in doubt, you shouldn’t try to advice (others). Just today I have seen comments where people recommend corn flour or oatmeal in meatballs (…). I understand why newcomers will be confused” (App. 21: 191, Shannon).

The LCHF community offers its members psychological empowerment (Petric & Petrovcic, 2014), because they start believing in themselves enforced by other members’ recognition. The guidance from experienced LCHF-followers underlines this recognition. Another reason for the experienced members to help the newcomers is to be recognized as experienced, which can

‘reward’ them with culinary capital within the LCHF food regime and provide them the status that comes with it (Naccarato & Lebesco, 2012). The moral responsibility is a sign of the structure inherent in the LCHF food regime that decides what behavior is rewarded with social status (Bourdieu, 1984).

5.2.1.4 Us vs. them

A way of communicating a community and thereby a shared identity is by distinguishing between

‘us’ and ‘them’ (Fosfuri et al., 2015). LCHF-followers use consumption of LCHF food to make this distinction and thereby categorise themselves towards others. The distinction is articulated in a post in the LCHF Facebook group, concerning a nomination of two fast-food advocates to the board of the official Danish food institution “Madkulturen” (Højbjerg, 2015): “It is grotesque.

Not weird that we just continue our altogether naughty lifestyle and will not listen to the official dietary guidelines anymore” (App. 21: 201, Lisbeth). Other members have commented on this

post agreeing with the message that the official authorities are acting irrationally, which underlines the distance between those who accept the traditional food regime and those who choose LCHF as an alternative food regime. The collective identity of LCHF-followers is articulated by such agreed-upon interpretation of their context (Scaraboto & Fischer, 2013). The on-going opposition to dominant lifestyle norms helps to define the symbolic boundaries of the LCHF food regime (Arnould & Thompson, 2005).

LCHF-followers experience that they have realised a ‘truth’ that is not reachable through the traditional food regime. It contributes to the group cohesion that they have likeminded to share this with. One member for instance provoked by posting an article that supported the traditional food regime and advised against saturated fat (Brændgaard, 2015). The reaction to this post was immediate, and other members’ comments were: “WFT” (App. 21: 203, Lisbeth), “OMG” (App.

21: 203, Inge), “Follow those guidelines and become sick and fat” (App. 21: 203, Inge), and “He (the author) can’t help it. (He) doesn’t know better” (App. 21: 203, Frk.). This illustrates the clear distinction between those within the LCHF food regime and those outside. The ‘others’ have not found the truth of food consumption, which the members of the group confirm each other in is right.

By following LCHF more of the respondents experience that they are allowed more with regard to food consumption, because pleasure-providing food containing fat and cream is no longer forbidden: “(…) You see fat as something healthy. (…) Fat-sandwiches, oil and butter, and yeah what else, cream uhmm” (App. 4: l. 220-223, Maria) and: “I think it tastes (…) of much more when it contains more fat. Butter does something to taste. It’s got something. (…) Yeah it’s not bad” (App. 5: l. 57-60, Signe). These quotations show how LCHF-followers are allowed to eat food containing fat and they feel sorry for people prohibited from such enjoyments. This understanding of being allowed to do something forbidden according to the traditional regime strengthens the distinction between ‘us’ and ‘them’, but it also elicits how LCHF-followers feel that they know better and have gained more culinary capital within the field of food consumption.

LCHF-followers and followers of the traditional food regime might consume some of the same food but LCHF-followers consume in a manner inaccessible to others possessing less culinary capital (Holt, 1998). LCHF-followers pity those who have not embraced the enlightening values of LCHF:

"(…) The only ones, who have not really gotten there yet (acknowledging that the correlation between fat and cardiovascular disease does not exist) are our official authorities. And that is fair enough in some sense; because you can't go changing your mind all the time and change dietary guidelines constantly (App. 7: l. 238-241, Jane).

LCHF-followers come to perceive themselves as sovereign consumers because they have seen through the traditional food regime’s dominance and broken free of the regime. The LCHF food regime thereby offers its followers a social status and excludes others based on the knowledge of

‘real’ health (Ellis et al., 2011).