Scrolling through mouth-watering images on Instagram? Beware!

The site exposes one to an eating disorder that causes unhealthy obsession of 'fitness' food

The photo-sharing social media site could put you at an increased risk of an eating disorder that causes unhealthy obsession of 'fitness' food, a new study warns.

The findings from the University College London (UCL) in the UK highlighted the implication of social media on psychological wellbeing. It also stressed on the influence that social media 'celebrities' enjoy over hundreds of thousands of individuals.

Social media use is ever increasing among young adults and has previously shown to have negative effects on body image, depression, social comparison, and disordered eating.

One eating disorder of interest in this context is orthorexia nervosa, an obsession with eating healthy.

High orthorexia nervosa is prevalent among people who take an active interest in their health and frequently occurs with anorexia nervosa, an eating disorder characterized by a low weight, fear of gaining weight and a strong desire to be thin.

Researchers conducted an online survey of 680 social media users who were following health food accounts to investigate links between Instagram use and orthorexia nervosa symptoms.

"We assessed their social media use, eating behaviours, and orthorexia nervosa symptoms," researchers said.

They found that Instagram use was associated with a greater tendency towards orthorexia nervosa, with no other social media channel having this effect.

The prevalence of orthorexia nervosa among the study participants was 49 per cent. This is significantly higher than the prevalence in the general population, which is less than one per cent.

"Our results suggest that the healthy eating community on Instagram has a high prevalence of orthorexia symptoms, with higher Instagram use being linked to increased symptoms," researchers said.

These results may also have clinical implications for eating disorder development and recovery.