Our Junk Food Instagram Habits Are Changing The Way We Eat

Food porn is universal: people everywhere are posting their culinary masterpieces to Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter, and you can bet that they're not posting photos of salad. Last year, we reported on the Food Porn Index, a colorful live infographic and food porn watchdog that has estimated that we spend way more time posting photos of junk food than healthy food. In fact, the Food Porn Index just released data that indicates that less than 37 percent of food photos contain fruits or vegetables, and 63 percent of food porn on social media showcases unhealthy food.

The most popular food hashtags are pie and ice cream, which show significant spikes during the summer months. On the flip side, the most popular healthy hashtags are #potato and #berry. Does any of this matter? According to a Harris Interactive Survey, more than half of digitally savvy Americans feel that seeing social media photos of fruits and vegetables would motivate them to eat better. So yes, "u r what u post," as the Food Porn Index indicates.

Bolthouse Farms has announced an initiative to stop the constant flow of photos that are high in fat content: the "Fruit and Veggie Takeover," which starts on March 2, and challenges us to set a record of one million healthy food posts per day.

"Food porn posts are among the most popular in social media because people love to share photos of food that reflects their lifestyle," said Suzanne Ginestro, chief marketing officer at Bolthouse Farms, in a statement. "We believe by sharing more images of fruits and veggies online, we can inspire better food choices offline."