A new kind of porn
Everyone looks at porn on the daily anyways, right? We all find ourselves drooling over the absolutely delicious images. Lusting after them as we shamefully scroll through, hoping no one discovers our rather strange obsession. It isn’t just a piece of meat, though.
it isn’t as uncommon as one would think. I mean, don’t we all look at food porn?
It’s become a strange phenomenon to post these images pre-feasting, but it has become a common idea for people to find healthier choices in meals, or at least divulge in aesthetics instead of wandering to the fridge.
“I like seeing pictures of food, especially if they put the recipe. I love to cook and try new things,” Merriam Tayani, 31-year-old art major, said. “If I post a picture, it’ll usually be something healthy, like fish and vegetables.”
Having started out of humor, the food porn “tag” has become popular to the point of maintaining a whole website (foodporndaily.com) that displays perfectly cropped pictures of mouth-watering meals with a few words describing its contents. The goal of the website: “click, drool, repeat.”
“I think its funny, I make jokes about people when I look at their profile (on Instagram) and all you see is food and then one picture of a selfie,” Kristine Berube, 20-year-old history major, said.
Of course there is always a dark side to these sort of things. Some people begin to overeat when viewing food porn, regardless of how healthy the meal. It isn’t a surprise that approximately every third picture in Instagram’s #foodporn tag features some type of sweet treat to potentially lure in others.
An article in the journal, Appetite, revealed those attempting to diet are more likely to overeat once viewing the images.
“Sometimes it makes you want to eat the food,” Morgan Stadick, 19, said. “One time my friend took a picture of a chocolate covered twinkie from the OC fair and I really wanted to eat one after.”
Although people often use this new tool for relaxation or ideas in cooking, it is apparent it can either hinder one’s dieting or give some healthy alternatives. Understanding the power of the artistically-shot, steaming cinnamon bun is a new thought to consider when lingering on social media late into the night.
