A study on “food porn” or “food porn”
Advertising and visual communication provide the consumer with a strong emotional power of attraction towards the popular product. The goal is to trigger the compulsive act of buying . But what happens to the individual when acting out is restrained or even non-existent? This is what is analyzed in the scientific journal “Brain and Cognition”.
What is food porn?
These are the images present in magazines, on the internet or on television… of cooked dishes that excite the senses of the consumer without satisfying them . These greedy climbs of sensations are not without danger for the brain. The professor of experimental psychology at the University of Oxford, Charles Spence notes this fact. For him, these concentrates of images encourage us to eat more and pervert our physiological common sense linked to our nutritional habits.
We no longer eat out of hunger . Experts in multi-sensory taste perceptions claim that over time, these compulsive behaviors lead to overweight.
A just visual hunger
Professor Charles Spence’s team highlights some harmless but revealing data. Pies, savory snacks and ice creams number in the millions of images on the internet, while vegetables such as Brussels sprouts, pomegranates and beets number more in the thousands.
It is clear that visual hunger has a strong power in the consumer (2) .
Seeing your food before ingesting it is a normal process, explains the scientist. But embellishing it with glossy paper, light and special effects is an act that may seem deviant. Food porn has the effect of exciting the brain to such an extent that a 25% increase in blood circulation is observed. It is the mechanisms related to self-control and decision-making that are affected. Cognitions also because all kinds of thoughts flow in to stimulate our perceptions, our senses and our emotions.
A disturbing process
In fact, on the one hand the consumer asks only to crack and let go but on the other, for reason, he refrains from taking action. This behavior is disturbing because frustration becomes a daily companion. Especially since from the image to the finished product, the comparison can only be disappointing. As for the taste… it rarely matches the promise given by the picture.
In addition, scientific studies show that consumers exposed to food porn tend to opt for nutrition that is not very beneficial for their health . This is even more true for overweight or obese people in whom food intake is addictive.
An alternative emerges
Guylaine Guevremont, nutritionist, explains that visual attraction to food is stimulating but that our state of deprivation is such, in this society of overabundance, that each of us seeks to compensate for this deprivation with images. For the dietician it is our responsibility not to “fall into the trap”, to develop our critical sense and our will not to give in to temptation. In fact, these are just simple images !
Blame it, once again, on the industrialists who are constantly deploying ever more ingenious methods to put us under dependence. So much so that Charles Spence reveals a few tricks to us: a potato chip, with a loud and high-pitched sound emitted under the tooth, seems fresher. A strawberry mousse is perceived as sweeter in a white rather than a black bowl.
He hopes his research can help him find multiple ways to showcase healthy yet sexy eating.
Stephen Paul is the lead author and founder of My Health Sponsor. Holder of a diploma in health and well-being coaching with more than 200 articles in the field of health, he makes it a point of honor to offer advice based on reliable information, based on scientific research, and verified by health professionals.