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Here’s why you should stop feeling guilty about your #foodporn posts

ByANI, Washington Dc
Jul 27, 2016 11:15 AM IST

Humanity’s obsession with indulgent food, an expression of which would include trends such as relentlessly posting of food every time one dines out, is actually quite old.

So, you are one of those who simply can’t stop yourself from taking a picture of what you’re eating and posting it on social media. And there are those who deride you for doing so. Time you stopped feeling guilty. Mankind’s affair with rich and indulgent food is actually quite old.

In the age of social media, food porn is almost an addiction.(Shutterstock)
In the age of social media, food porn is almost an addiction.(Shutterstock)

The words like food porn, nom-mom-nom and foodie may have made it to our dictionary today, but our historical love-affair with indulgent meals may be over 500 years old. A new analysis of European paintings shows that meat and bread were among the most commonly depicted foods in paintings of meals from the 16th century.

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“Crazy meals involving less-than-healthy foods aren’t a modern craving,” explained lead author Brian Wansink of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab. “Paintings from what’s sometimes called the Renaissance Period were loaded with the foods modern diets warn us about -- salt, sausages, bread and more bread.”

Read: Food, the new status symbol

Researchers studied ‘Renaissance Period’ paintings to understand mankind’s obsession with indulgent food. (Shutterstock)
Researchers studied ‘Renaissance Period’ paintings to understand mankind’s obsession with indulgent food. (Shutterstock)

For the study, researchers started with 750 food paintings from the past 500 years and focused on 140 paintings of family meals. Of the 36 ‘Renaissance Period’ paintings, 86 percent depicted bread and 61 percent depicted meat while only 22 percent showed vegetables.

Read: It’s all about different flavours | #Foodporn debate gains steam

Interestingly, the most commonly painted foods were not the most readily available foods of the time. For example, the most commonly painted vegetable was an artichoke, the most commonly painted fruit was a lemon, and the most commonly painted meat was shellfish, usually lobster. According to the authors, these paintings often featured food that was indulgent, aspirational or aesthetically pleasing.

In the end, “Our love affair with visually appealing, decadent, or status foods is nothing new,” said co-author Andrew Weislogel, added: “It was already well-established 500 years ago.”

The study is published in Sage Open.

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Catch every big hit, every wicket with Crick-it, a one stop destination for Live Scores, Match Stats, Quizzes, Polls & much more. Explore now!.

Catch your daily dose of Fashion, Taylor Swift, Health, Festivals, Travel, Relationship, Recipe and all the other Latest Lifestyle News on Hindustan Times Website and APPs.
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