Instagram Food Picture Poster? You Have An Eating Disorder

Sounds judgmental, but a mental health expert said recently that the number of Instagram food pictures on your thread directly correlates to your health. You might even have an eating disorder.

Though many think that the urge to photograph breakfast, lunch and dinner and post the pictures to Instagram is strange to annoying, Canadian Obesity Network chair Dr. Valerie Taylor argues that the practice could be evidence that something deeper is going on.

Speaking at the Canadian Obesity Summit in Vancouver Wednesday, Dr. Taylor said that while many people post pictures of their meals because they genuinely like food, others do so because food is significant in their lives. Too significant.

“You don’t take pictures of who you’re with, you take pictures of what you’re eating,” Dr. Taylor said. “For some people who have the predisposition for weight behaviors, it just goes that one step further, and they start to develop unhealthy weight disorders and they start to have weight problems.”

There are a lot of implications in there, but number one is that people who obsessively post Instagram food pictures might have medical issues like obesity.

She also pointed out that people don’t just eat food for its nutritional value. Food plays a psychological role in our daily lives, which is one of the main causes of obesity today.

Dr. Taylor’s presentation at the conference was titled “Food Fetish: Society’s Complicated Relationship with Food.” In addition to being the mental health chair of the Canadian Obesity Network, she is also an associate professor at the University of Toronto and psychiatrist-in-chief at Women’s College Hospital in Toronto.

What do you think? Is the habit of posting Instagram food photos unhealthy? Could it signal the rise of an eating disorder? Sound off!

[Image via: mama_mia, Shutterstock]