What’s Going on In Your Brain When You Look at Photos of Food

Chances are, if you’re reading this article, you’ve looked at a pretty picture of food today. Instagram, Facebook, food blogs and websites like ours, even Snapchat — it seems that today everyone is eager to share pretty pictures of food. We call it food porn, and it’s taking the world by storm.

But why exactly is food porn so popular? I mean, after all, it’s just pictures of things we eat. We spend a lot less time or energy posting pictures of things we hear, feel, or smell. Turns out, there are super legit reasons why we love to look at food porn.

Way back in the day before we had grocery stores and take out, humans were hunter-gathers; we needed to collect our own food to eat. To do so, we relied on our vision – we used our sense of sight to identify where food was and how to get it. The visual appeal exerts an important function on the human brain. Scientists call this “visual hunger.”

“Visual hunger” is the natural desire or urge to look at food porn. Evolutionarily, this was advantageous. Our brains learned to enjoy the site of food and reward pathways became activated upon viewing it, because it meant we got to eat, which meant we would have enough nourishment to get by a bit longer. It was a physiological response important for survival.

Today, however, we live in a much different world. Food is everywhere. We don’t have to hunt and gather our food. We can just go to the store or order a pizza. But our brains are still programmed for hunter-gather days, explaining why half your Instagram feed is food porn. 

When humans had to fend for nourishment to survive, high calorie foods elicited a more pleasurable brain response than low calorie foods, likely because higher calorie foods ensured longer survival when food was scarce.

This elevated response to high fat, high calorie, high carbohydrate foods remains, and is likely why you can’t stop staring at pictures of gluttonous ice cream sundaes and treats, crazy pizza hybrid creations, and ginormous bagel sandwiches, and why they drive you to have the urge to eat hedonistically.

Studies show that looking at pictures of tempting food can evoke sensations of appetite even in the absence of true hunger. These pictures, when compared to non-food photos, activate reward pathways, reinforcement pathways, emotions, decision making, motor coordination (*raises spoon*) and even swallowing muscles in your brain. Impacts were larger in hungry individuals.

Luckily, food porn isn’t all bad. Some studies suggest looking at food pictures of healthy foods may increase the drive to consume these types of foods. So do yourself a favor and follow some healthy Instagram accounts or check out some healthier food blogs.

It’s only human to like food porn, so it’s not weird that you spend hours creeping on the Spoon site or watching Food Network. Get inspired to cook and eat — just be sure you’re really hungry when you do sit down to eat, and that when you dive into a meal, you take a technology break and enjoy what’s actually in front of you.