Social media influences food choices among young people to a greater degree than believed, according to a study by researchers at England’s Aston University.
The study, published in the journal Appetite, examined how university student subjects were influenced by descriptions of eating habits on Facebook. It measured influence on consumption patterns of both fruits and vegetables on one hand, and high-calorie snacks and beverages on the other.
Researchers found that subjects consumers more of both kinds of foods when they encountered regular accounts of their social media peers doing so. They ate an extra fifth of a portion of fruits and vegetables for every portion they thought their Facebook friends ate, and their consumption of high-calorie foods went up by a third if their friends also indulged.
“Given the widespread use of social media, it is plausible that we are implicitly exposed to norms in our wider social circles, and that these influence our eating behaviour, and potentially, Body Mass Index (BMI),” the study abstract said. It called for further research to determine if social media influences dietary behavior over time.
