Recent study shows that food porn is contributing to the obesity problem that many people are suffering from today. Scientists from Oxford University found that posting photos of foods on Instagram and other social networking sites is just worsening the said health crisis.
Food porn which is the idealized visual presentation of eating or cooking to be shown to the public has become very popular today. With the advancement in technology, people can now easily share mouthwatering photos of foods on social media igniting the cravings of the viewers.
#RT Garlic Herb Infused Grilled Prawns. pic.twitter.com/LEMsXVGrL3 @foodporn https://t.co/1QHY2BwSUF pic.twitter.com/0imEgWgUKH
— The Food Channel ™ (@ItsFoodChannel) September 30, 2015
This obsession has been found to be contributing to Britain's crisis regarding obesity. In the study entitled 'Eating with our eyes: From visual hunger to digital satiation' which will be featured in the Brain and Cognition British journal next month, the link between food porn consumption and obesity was shown.
#F00DP0RN pic.twitter.com/WkIKkgtRdL — foodporn (@F00DP0RN) August 14, 2015
The head of the Oxford research team Professor Charles Spence stated that, "The growing obesity crisis is but one of the signs that humankind is not doing such a great job in terms of optimizing the contemporary food landscape." The study also states that the new online obsession might be worsening our cravings for foods without considering its contents.
Rainbow Oreos! pic.twitter.com/KlBeItHxvq — FoodPorn (@ItsFoodPorn) October 15, 2015
"Specifically, we question the impact that our increasing exposure to images of desirable foods (what is often labelled 'food porn', or 'gastroporn') via digital interfaces might be having, and ask whether it might not inadvertently be exacerbating our desire for food (what we call 'visual hunger')."
The digitally-enhanced food images that are now scattered all over the internet only alters the desire of individuals to pursue healthy lifestyles by starting to consider the food they eat. Food porn offers visual stimuli to social media users.
According to the researchers, even television is also doing the same thing. They found that the said device is also contributing to the problem of obesity since the number of televiewers watching cooking shows have increased.
