Instagram Can Make You Eat Healthier

Taking and Sharing Pictures Can Hold You Accountable for Healthier Eating

A picture is worth a thousand words. The photo sharing platform, Instagram, is used by many as a way to communicate. University of Washington researchers explored how Instagram can be used to hold you accountable for healthy eating. Social media is a tool that has consumed much of our daily lives and pairing that with healthier eating is a simple, yet positive way to stay on track.

If you’ve ever tried losing weight, a food journal or tracking app may have been a tool you used. Writing descriptions and trying to remember the details of everything you ate may have proven challenging. However, taking pictures is another avenue that can capture those little details.

Instagram allows users to have different identities within their account. This allows for someone to have a healthy eating account and daily life account, without overwhelming their friends. Instagram keeps a log of all of the photos you have taken, as well as allows you to describe the photo in a caption. You can use hashtags, such as #foodjournal or #fooddiary, to follow different users or friends using that hashtag. This provides instant motivations or resource sharing, as well as that support from a large community worldwide. What researchers found useful was that when a user scrolls through your postings, they will see everything consumed over time. This will allow for diet trends to be discovered, as well as a visual representation of portion sizes and balanced plates.

A huge piece of weight loss is reaching your goal. But, the maintenance stage is just as important and using a tool such as Instagram allows that individual to be held accountable based on their following.

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First Published June 2017