Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Foodie Post #7

I often find myself laying in bed at night looking at my social media and instantly getting hungry. It seems like my entire instagram is dedicated to food at times. However, no one posts just your run of the mill food, this is DELICIOUS and beautifully appetizing dishes and snacks that people are proud of. So, when I am laying there, I am tempted to eat a bed time snack.

This isn't just a night time thing. I am often inspired by and made hungry by these photos on my feed. This realization got me thinking that there's no way that I am the only person who feels this way. Then I started to think, what if social media is aiding in the rise of obesity in America. I decided to search it and found this interesting article: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2015/12/14/how-social-media-may-be-causing-to-gain-weight.html

In summary of the article, 63% of millennials' feeds are clogged with food on a day to day basis and 70% of household meals are inspired by digital media in some way. Different hashtags and location sharing make these pictures easier to find and pop up more often. It is proven that the brain goes through changes when it sees food photos that make the person very hungry or simply just want to eat.

However, the weight of the viewer had a direct correlation to the areas of the brain that were activated. Obese individuals brains were activated in reward or pleasure centers, while healthy weight individuals' brains were activated in cognitive centers.

This intrigued me. So while social media food posts might not alter people who are already at an healthy weight, it might be making overweight people gain weight more rapidly.

Honestly, I think it makes anyone inspired to try new things, however, the overabundance of pictures and emphasis on food can be unhealthy for America.

5 comments:

  1. I agree! I find my self making fun of people that take pics of their food but im glad they do because its fun to go back and remember a meal. However, I do agree that it is making this generation more unhealthy.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Go gurllll this is a great post!

    ReplyDelete
  3. As I'm reading this post, I'm fighting the social-media inspired urge to go to cookout and get a milkshake. Too real.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Very interesting! I wouldn't have thought of the potential trend between obesity and food posts! I could also be interested to see a study done one people following fitness posts and weight! Great post!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Okay this is crazy! Thanks so much for sharing I have never really considered 1. how much time I spend drooling over food pictures 2. what they are doing to me... I am kind of grossed out that pictures and social media can have such a huge impact on our eating habits. I wonder if there is a way to get around this... or to stop looking a pictures/videos of really unhealthy food. Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete