Foodies on Instagram, beware! Your love for food images could elevate your eating disorder risk!

(Image for representational purposes only)

New Delhi: Who doesn't love food? That's just it – we all do. We also love taking photographs of our meals and posting it on Instagram with just the right filter to make it look even more mouth-watering than it already is, ready for the world to enjoy our meal visually.

What a lovely feeling! But is it?

We not only love posting, but our love for food and love for experimenting with new dishes makes us scroll through images posted by numerous food accounts. Those images may look enticing, may make you drool, salivate and leave you asking for more, but it is also costing your health.

Those drool-worthy images of yummy foods on Instagram could put you at an increased risk of an eating disorder that causes unhealthy obsession of 'fitness' food, a new study warns.

The findings from the University College London (UCL) in the UK highlight the implications social media can have on psychological wellbeing, and the influence social media 'celebrities' may have over hundreds of thousands of individuals.

Social media use is ever increasing among young adults and has previously been shown to have negative effects on body image, depression, social comparison, and disordered eating.

One eating disorder of interest in this context is orthorexia nervosa, an obsession with eating healthy.

High orthorexia nervosa is prevalent in populations who take an active interest in their health and frequently occurs with anorexia nervosa, an eating disorder characterised by a low weight, fear of gaining weight and a strong desire to be thin.

Researchers conducted an online survey of 680 social media users who were following health food accounts to investigate links between Instagram use and orthorexia nervosa symptoms.

"We assessed their social media use, eating behaviours, and orthorexia nervosa symptoms," researchers said.

They found that sigher Instagram use was associated with a greater tendency towards orthorexia nervosa, with no other social media channel having this effect.

The prevalence of orthorexia nervosa among the study participants was 49 per cent. This is significantly higher than the prevalence in the general population, which is less than one per cent.

"Our results suggest that the healthy eating community on Instagram has a high prevalence of orthorexia symptoms, with higher Instagram use being linked to increased symptoms," researchers said.

These results may also have clinical implications for eating disorder development and recovery.

(With PTI inputs)