Shelly Palmer Radio Report – October 17, 2013

Stop! Close that Instagram app, put your phone down and step away from your dinner! We’ve become obsessed with photographing every meal, but a new study says that food photos on Instagram ruin the enjoyment of food for everyone at the table. Two researchers at Brigham Young University had 232 people look at and rate pictures of food. Half of them looked at desserts, while the other half looked at salty snacks like potato chips and pretzels. After they finished rating the pictures, both groups were given salty foods to eat and asked to rate how good they tasted. The group that had just looked at pictures of salty foods enjoyed their snack far less than the other group. Why did this happen? One of the researchers said that those people became tired of the taste without even eating the food, calling it ‘sensory boredom.’ Next time you post a picture of what you’re about to eat, remember that you’re ruining that food for all of your friends. Put down the phone, and just dig in instead!