The Legitimate Reason Instagramming Your Food Makes It Taste Better

If you're one of those people who's not sorry about how often they Instagram photos of food (*raises hand*), this news is going to make your day. A new study published in the Journal of Consumer Marketing called How Consumer-Generated Images (CGI) Shape Important Consumption Outcomes in the Food Domain found that taking photos of your food can actually make it taste better. How? Pausing to take a photo increases the savoring associated with your food, and the anticipation leading up to the act of eating makes the experience of eating even better. Interestingly, it also found that "when descriptive social norms regarding healthy eating are made salient, CGI can also lead to more favorable outcomes for less pleasurable (i.e. healthy) foods." In other words, there's a reason you'll enjoy your kale salad a whole lot more if you take a beautiful photo of it.

As someone whose photo stream on Instagram is 90 percent food, I can attest to this claim — if you take the time to style your food, get the perfect shot, and take in all the details before you actually eat it, that first bite is so much more enjoyable than if you scarf it down as soon as it hits the table. So go forth and post the sh*t out of your doughnuts, pizza, and avocado toast. Savoring the moment will help you savor the food.