Posting Instagram Photos of Food Make People Eat Healthier, Research Reveals

instagram Journal of Consumer Marketing Valerie Taylor University of Toronto

By Staff Reporter , Parent Herald Mar 08, 06:58 am

If you think that posting food photos on your Instagram account only allows you to share snaps of mouth-watering dishes to your friends, you thought wrong. A recent study revealed that taking photos of food and sharing them on Instagram inspire people to eat healthier.

Elite Daily said the research, which was published in the Journal of Consumer Marketing, also discovered that taking photos of food items would actually "make it taste better." It noted that the research involved 360 participants broken down into three groups.

The study also disclosed that food made with quality ingredients are given higher ratings by the respondents and snapping photos of food make people give a higher rating to these items. However, the most interesting result of the research is that respondents got interested in eating healthy food when they were shown photos of it.

It was highlighted in the Elite Daily report that capturing food images also "builds anticipation" and allows people to enjoy their food more. Researchers, however, claimed that additional study on the subject matter still needs to be conducted to support their results.

However, Huffington Post pointed out that too much posting of food photos could also be bad for an individual. Head of psychiatry at the University of Toronto Dr. Valerie Taylor said this could also hint at a dieting problem.

"I see clients for whom food has become problematic, and they struggle to go out and not have food be the key element of all social interaction: what they eat, when they ate, when they are going to eat again," Taylor explained. She noted that this could well be related to issues in eating and weight gain.

The doctor also said that this food problem is not just applicable for Instagram and social media users but also to those who have placed tattoos of food on their bodies. "I think for some people it highlights how important food has become. Just like the tattoos of 'I love McDonald's' replacing the 'I love Mom' tattoo."