Food Porn . . .problem?

Enough with the food already!  Have you noticed the amount of food photographs we are flooded with these days?  Just take a look at your Facebook page, commercials, websites, billboards – and have you checked out Pinterest?  It’s all  a minefield of delectably delicious photographs of fabulous looking food.  It’s blatant Food Porn.  

It used to be we would peruse our recipe books (which I have been known to read like a romance novel), purchase a Gourmet magazine or tune into FoodNetwork to get a recipe, or actually, a food fix. I also love to curl up on the couch on a rainy weekend morning and watch cooking shows.  During the week  I am always up for Ina Garten on FoodNetwork to see what she has up her sleeve for Jeffrey for dinner.  My dinner always seems so meager compared to hers!  

So how and when did the change occur from simply looking for dinner ideas, new recipes to simply drooling over decadent, erotic and enticing food photos?  While I’ve noticed this new trend, I didn’t actually think of it as an actual food trend worthy of research.  However, this month’s Women’s Health magazine actually set out that it actually is a problem.  “Food porn relies on a phenomenon called supernormal stimuli, which exaggerates qualities we’re already hardwired to love,” says Harvard Medical School’s Deirdre Barrett, Ph.D.   In a nutshell, that would be foods high in calories that look like they are shiny with sugar coating, or coated with oil.  The photograph itself works wonders on our senses also.  Don’t you notice the photo is shot abnormally close so you see every granule, slickness of oil and perfect color of the texture, doneness or ripeness?  I can just feel my mouth watering and my mind flying around the contents of my own kitchen in the hopes of recreating some of these concoctions.  Even if I am not hungry, these darn photos make me want to eat!  And an apple just doesn’t compare!  It’s no wonder because “. . . viewing images of insanely delicious food lit up the brain’s reward center and caused women with the most active mental response to overeat.”   A study in the Obesity journal found that just seeing food increases levels of the hunger hormone ghrelin, even after eating a regular meal.  I remember once reading a diet hint that said to NOT watch cooking shows during “hungry” times.  This was years ago, but I guess it still holds true for this reason.  

So, even if you think you are only “eating with your eyes” you may be making yourself crave foods and want to actually taste what your eyes are feasting.  What’s a foodie to do?  Give up Pinterest?  Research says . . . you guessed it!  Exercise!  Physical activity helps dampen the desire to seek out unhealthy food.  Also, getting enough sleep helps keep your willpower and resolve in check.  Another thing to do is actually to cook – then you are in control of the ingredients and the foods you are eating.  We normally eat fewer calories when we cook as we have more control.  When looking up recipes I like to find those with the nutritional information so I know just what I’m getting and I can keep things in balance.  

Research also says that consumers “who cook tend to have a healthier relationship with food and are more likely to be satisfied by what they eat.”  I’m quite happy to be in my kitchen and cook for family and friends.  But since I’ve given up celebrity shows, (meaning no Kardashian shows during the cooking hour) I’m not sure I can also give up some of the better cooking shows during my kitchen time!  There are some, that will remain nameless, that I do try to avoid. Sometimes there’s just no reason to include three sticks of butter in every dish!  That’s the time for music I guess.    

Do you watch cooking shows while you cook?  What’s your favorite cooking show?
And don’t you think they should just leave poor Harry alone?