How Social Media Influences Food Choices?

Social media users who view images of healthy foods that have been heavily endorsed with ‘likes’ are more likely to make healthier food choices, a new study has found.

A new study published in the scientific journal Appetite investigated the acute effect of socially endorsed social media posts on participants’ eating behavior.

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‘Social media can be used in future as a way to encourage healthier eating.’

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The 169 participants, who had an average age of 21 years old (but total ages across the group ranged from 18 to 48), were asked to look at mock Instagram posts of different types of food, that either had a few or a lot of ‘likes’ and later given access to grapes and cookies to consume.

Participants viewed more images of fruit and vegetables and less nutritious foods such as cakes and biscuits, and non-food images such as stylish interior designs were seen less.

Researchers also found that the participants went on to consume a larger proportion of grapes after viewing highly liked images of fruit and vegetables, compared to the other images.

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The findings of the study suggest that not only exposure to healthy food images on social media, but those that are also heavily endorsed with ‘likes’, may push people to choose more healthy foods, in place of less nutritious foods.

One reason for this may be because thinking that others ‘like’ and eat fruit and vegetables pushes participants to alter their behavior to fit in with what they perceive to be the norm.

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The most recent figures from the NHS’s Health Survey for England showed that in 2018 only 28 per cent of adults were eating the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables per day. Children and young people across the UK had even lower levels of fruit and vegetable consumption.

The next stage of their work will trial an intervention using real Instagram accounts, to test whether asking people to actively follow more social media accounts posting images of nutritionally rich foods, can encourage people to consume more fruit and vegetables over a sustained period.

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People do not passively view information about what other people are eating online and also shape other people’s food preferences and choices.

Further research is needed to explore whether and how these findings can be translated into digital interventions to help support individuals who want to make healthier food choices and to understand how social media platforms can be used as a tool to support healthy eating behavior.

Source-Medindia