Instagram could be having an unexpectedly positive impact on people's diets

Tim Sandle

Regular exposure to healthy eating and good food choices via social media drive changes to the eating habits of people, such as consuming more fruit and vegetables and eschewing fatty food. This is according to a new study.

The interesting basis to the study is that people are changing their habits not necessarily because they are 100 percent sold on the need to eat healthy foods, but because, based on the repeated messages via social media, they believe it is socially acceptable to do so. 

Moreover, this is not simply the effect of a general message, but in relation to viral advertising and messages directed at certain demographic or social groups. Here many people opt to undertake the behaviors that they think are expected with the social group they most closely identify with.

These are the key research outcomes from the University of Birmingham. The research team has been studying the effect of exposure to social-based messages in relation to healthy eating. 

The research has found that a "liking social norm" message ultimately has a powerful effect on the food choices made up most people. This came about after subjects were asked to rate some posters. One set (the experimental group) were shown a poster displaying the results of a made-up survey that suggested the typical person enjoys eating fruit and vegetables every day. The second group were shown a series of unrelated information items (the control group.) 

Following this, the subjects were then asked to take part in a second study. For this they were required to rate emotions and taste some “healthy snacks” (cucumber and grapes) and “high calorie snacks” (biscuits and crisps).

Tim Sandle

Here, with the control group, those participants who thought that their peers eat more fruit and vegetables than they did proceeded to consume more of the cucumber and grapes during study. However, participants who normally eat a lot of fruit and vegetables did not eat any more (although they did eat fewer unhealthy food items.)

The researchers think the study points towards new ways to help promote healthier food through the use of social media to send out behavior reinforcement messages.

The research has yet to be published in a peer reviewed journal and the study is a work in progress. The findings to date have recently been presented to the Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior (SSIB.)

Could this work in practice? Maybe. Anonymous Twitter user K (@_roomwithaview) recently messaged: "Parents on social media are so cute. My mum keeps showing me infographics from her Facebook newsfeed about healthy eating & sleeping early ????."

However, not every commentator was impressed. Jose L. Merino (@jmuntd), for instance, has tweeted: "Social media does not help with trying to maintain a healthy eating lifestyle." Somewhere in-between, World Health News (@WorldHealthNews) posted: "Celebrity endorsements and social media have also made it confusing to understand the basics of healthy eating,…"

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