Can Food Porn Make Us Slim? How Brains of Consumers React to Food in Digital Environments
Olivia Petit, Adrian David Cheok, Olivier Oullier · Integrative Food Nutrition and Metabolism · 2016
People constantly publish/share their pictures/videos of delicious food dishes on social media.This excessive display of food pictures on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Pinterest, and other social media is often referred to as "food porn".Seeing food presented in an appetizing and/or "ready to be eaten" manner allows the brains of the viewer to vividly imagine the consumption experience related to eating what they see.Looking at pictures of food is known to trigger gustatory sensations in the brain, and to often triggering the desire to consume.As the food industry is using social media to promote their products, public health prevention and organizations in charge of promoting healthy lifestyles would be behooved to coincide their practices with this digital (r)evolution.This article discusses how multisensory mental simulation -i.e. the imagination of all the sensations associated with food consumption -via social media, can be used to produce satiety.In addition, making the consumption of healthy foods more appetizing and enjoyable to better regulate food intake.