Instagramming Your Food Can Make It Taste Better!
When you are out with your friends and the waiters deliver beautifully prepared dishes, and you’re all prepared to dig in when one of your friends at the table yells, “WAIT! I need a photo first!”
We are used to this course of events. Everyone excitedly anticipates the arrival of the food and when it arrives, we pick up our phones off the table and with great enjoyment snap photos of our plates from every side possible.
Sharing photos on Instagram is quite new in human history, but it has quickly become a part of everyday dining experiences. In other words, food sharing on social media has become a “If you don’t instagram it, it didn’t happen” attitude.
Apparently, Taking pictures of your food has many more benefits than just collecting likes for your foodie pursuits. A study showed that sharing your food pictures on social media actually enhances your overall experience. In some ways, capturing the food you’re about to eat might actually makes it taste better.
A study showed that people who were asked to photograph, share, and then eat reported enjoying the food much more than a person who did not share the photo online.
When someone was aware that other individuals were photographing and enjoying the same healthy foods they were about to photograph, had more pleasurable experience than those who did not receive the information. So all those #chiaseedpudding photos you have been seeing on Instagram, if you make your own, and then post it, you may enjoy it much more than a person who didn’t know that it was a trend.
So How Taking Pictures Of Your Food Can Make You Enjoy It More?
When people wait before eating they build greater anticipation and let’s not forget about “we eat first with our eyes” matter. So when your food arrives and you immediately hold your phone to take a beautiful picture to show others how delicious your meal is going to be. At that moment you will be building your own excitement with your beautiful picture and delaying your moment of satisfaction. It’s a double win!
From now on when you bring out your phone to snap a picture of your plate, you can let other anxious diners know you’re just doing it to enhance your experience. And that’s science!
Christelle Bedrossian
Dietitian-Nutritionist
Beirut, Lebanon