The Mind Body Project
The Mind Body Project
Healthy Huddle: How Social Media Broke Our Appetite
We explore how social media drives appetite inflation, making simple meals feel dull, and cravings feel loud, and we share a practical reset to restore satisfaction without banning favorite foods. We tie dopamine, novelty, and endless food cues to real choices, then offer steps to reclaim calm eating.
• how dopamine and novelty shape desire, not true hunger
• Why 50–100 hourly food cues inflate appetite
• highlight reels of food versus everyday meals
• reasons simple plates feel unsatisfying after scrolling
• practical boundaries for scrolling around meals
• a five to seven-day flavor‑novelty reset
• using presence and slower eating to feel enough
• algorithm nudges to reduce recipe bombardment
• turning saved recipes into planned meals for closure
Thank you, each of you, for joining us for Healthy Hut. I'm looking forward to seeing you right here next time on Healthy Huddle.
Welcome to Healthy Huddle. Thank you for joining us tonight. If this is your first time, we meet each week as we join a live call to cover a health and wellness nutrition topic each week. And we join our live call each week to share that topic. And if anybody has comments or questions or thoughts, we allow them to share that. We just wanted you to join in on our conversation. So let's go to the live call.
SPEAKER_02:Nice.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. How social media broke our appetite.
SPEAKER_02:There you go. Everybody watch Kim. That's right. Yep, it'll give it away here.
SPEAKER_00:If you if you gain weight when you get on the scatter mark, it's her fault because it made you hungry.
SPEAKER_02:I hope you're making bowls. I am, but I I'll tell everyone while everyone's on here. Walmart and every grocery store in which tall balls and decayers is not carrying my ingredient right now. So I literally had to order from Amazon today, and this stuff will not be here until next Tuesday. And I had to order it in bulk. So you still have to wait because these are sold.
SPEAKER_00:So it's going to take a week from Amazon?
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:Wow.
SPEAKER_02:So I had to really skimp a little and add a little extra other things in this one. Let's see how it goes. I have another house. I do too. So everyone or sunflower better for not using it because no one's selling it right now. I haven't because I bought it to make them myself and I didn't. So if I can get on a standby list, I'll give it to you. Yep. I don't think I have two bars. I'll put you on the priority list.
SPEAKER_00:Well, look, look how easy that was. Sometimes it just takes a village.
SPEAKER_02:It does, it does.
SPEAKER_00:All right. So we are going to talk about how social media broke your appetite. And what a great example for Kim to be making something as we talk about that. Because that exists, as as all of you are excited and talking about, that's exactly what happens. The funny thing is, is that we're going to talk about why scrolling makes us hungrier, pickier, and less satisfied. And how do we fix it? So it's not just our life, you know, as we scroll, we look, you know, we become pickier, we become less satisfied, but also has to do with scrolling as we look at food. So we're going to talk about how that looks. Because what happens if you click click on one recipe? What happens?
SPEAKER_02:You get a bunch more.
SPEAKER_00:You get a bunch more. It's funny how that algorithm knows what you're looking for. And then you go, oh, that looks good. And it may be, and it's just a picture. And oh, then that then the next recipe, oh, that looks good. And so sometimes do you ever get done scrolling and have clicked on multiple recipes, or maybe you didn't even click on the recipe, you just saw the picture. And then did it make you hungrier?
SPEAKER_02:Hungry for that.
SPEAKER_00:Hungry for that, yeah. But then did you go make it?
SPEAKER_02:I did not.
SPEAKER_00:No, probably not. I mean, I mean, how often have you seen a recipe on social media, where it's Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and went and made it right away? Often. Often, really? Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yes. Mom must shop for ingredients and make a thing. She does.
SPEAKER_00:That's awesome. And and is does it satisfy you after you make it, after you saw it and you make it?
SPEAKER_02:Some of them do, and some of them do not. Oh, but the feeling is very satisfying, yes.
SPEAKER_00:The the feeling is of making it, of seeing it and making it.
unknown:Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00:So so then, so then it so is that any so the things you make, it's like that you see, you go, oh, that sounds good, so I'll go make it, right?
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:And so that's the power, and that's kind of kind of what we're gonna talk about, is because it makes us want that. So then if you don't make it, so if you don't make it after you see it, how does it make you feel towards your other food that you have?
SPEAKER_02:It's not what I wanted.
SPEAKER_00:Not what you wanted. It's kind of like some people like to just look on Zillow just because they like to be nosy and look at everybody's houses. But then does it ever make you then look around your house and go, huh? My house, huh? I thought it was, you know, okay. I thought it was pretty good. And then I saw those houses and like, eh, I mean, it's not as great as I thought. Sometimes it makes it feel like that. And sometimes the same thing with scrolling, and we look at food, and then we don't have the opportunity to go buy the food to make it right then because it's about dinner time, or what we a lot of us probably do is scroll while we're eating. So then you're scrolling while you're eating, and you go, Well, these eggs aren't really good, or whatever I'm having, this sandwich, or this reheated meal, when you're seeing somebody cook this great dinner that looks just amazing. So when when that happens, when we are scrolling and we're we feel hungrier after scrolling, even if we've already eaten and it's not necessarily what we wanted, it's called neurobiology. Um, so it's not not a coincidence. This it's not like, oh, that just happened. It's not. So it doesn't, so social media just doesn't influence what we think we want. I mean, it changes how our brain perceives hunger, pleasure, and satisfaction. So we talk about this all the time, but I mean, social media affects our brain. I mean, it's not it, there's a lot of money behind it. There's a lot of money behind deciding what it the things it makes you do. So don't be fooled by it's just an entertainment thing, because it can alter the way you think, the way things you do, just like when it comes to food. Uh it will alter how it perceives your hunger, your pleasure, and your satisfaction, which is just exactly of your scrolling and you see all these good recipes, why you're eating something that's like eh, it's not that great, but it's what you had in the fridge. So then you get done eating, go, it wasn't that great. I'd still rather have that. So it does alter that. So when we scroll, just like a lot of other things, we get a dopamine hijack. In other words, it makes us feel good. So it hijacks how we're feeling. So every time we scroll, we see a new image. Because how often is a recipe just the recipe? What is not very often because why?
SPEAKER_02:Well, there's a whole bunch of other things that's with it. Yeah, but you gotta go through all the sponsored stuff.
SPEAKER_00:But but usually in there a picture with it, like if if you click on it, and and probably you click on it because you see the picture, and you go, ooh, that looks really good. I wonder what's all in it. So that's why there's an image. It's just like when you if you see people post, what are you more apt to stop and look at? The picture or the long old post they posted. Chances are you're just gonna check out the picture, you're gonna zoom in and be on your way.
SPEAKER_01:If there's not a jump to recipe option, I'm skipping it. I'm with you, Christy.
SPEAKER_00:Because otherwise you have to scroll forever and you never know when you hit the recipe.
SPEAKER_01:Like a huge story about when they made it with their grandmother or whatever, and it's I don't care.
SPEAKER_02:I don't need the whole story. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I just need need the uh need the recipe, and I need to I need to know how it looks when I'm done.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So but when we scroll, we see those images, we see the recipe, we see the new food trend, the new desserts, we see all those things as we scroll. So the brain releases dopamine, which is anticipation plus wanting. What's coming up next? Ooh, I want that. What's coming up next? Why do you we you know you might call it mindlessly scroll? Why, why is that? Whether it's for you're looking for recipes or anything else, it's because of dopamine of what's next. What's next? What's next? And as we've all talked about, you've never found the end of TikTok, or you've never found the end of Facebook. I guess you could scroll forever and never find the, but so the dopamine doesn't mean necessarily you're hungry, it just means desire. Your brain gets trained to want more novelty. What's different? What's what's new and and neat? It wants to be more stimulated, it wants more intense flavors, it wants food more often. You know, and we don't realize I think this is happening when we're looking through all this and doing it. We think we're just looking for a recipe, or we're just looking for something to eat, or I'm just scrolling to pass the time. But really, when we do that, all of those things are filtering into our brain. And so a lot of this is just, it's not saying don't do it, it's just saying be aware of that as you look at those things. So instead of saying, you know, instead of I'm hungry, your brain says, I want something interesting. So usually the picture stops you because why? Not because maybe you're hungry, but because it looks interesting, right? I when we have brunch at Christmas time when all the family comes, so I'm the one that cooks all the all the brunch, all the breakfast foods. So I like looking for breakfast foods, and so I look for things that are interesting, like what's kind of different, what's kind of fun. So I look try to find those things that are interesting, not necessarily because I'm hungry, but that look interesting that everybody goes, oh, that's really neat. But then we interpret that as I'm hungry. So we're really looking for two different things, and so then with social media, we have everybody knows what inflation is, right? What about appetite inflation? So, how about this? So, before social media, we saw three to five food cues a day. In other words, maybe you saw a billboard from McDonald's. Oh, I want that. That's why billboards back in the day were so so powerful. Now you look at a billboard and you go, that's kind of old school. But you you might have three to five. I mean, if you're traveling back in the day, you would be looking for that McDonald's sign. Now you just punch up on an app and you can find exactly where it is. But before social media, think about this three to five food cues a day, a day. Now we see 50 to 100 food cues per hour. So three to five per day. Now social media, we see 50 to 100 per hour. So each cue triggers a desire. I want that thing. It increases salvation, then it increases mental hungry. Oh, I think I'm hungry. Because, of course, if you saw a McDonald's sign and you're on a road trip, you couldn't pull up where the next rest stop was. You knew you could go to the bathroom at McDonald's, so you'd go to the bathroom at McDonald's, and then if you're a kid, you beg your parents for some fries and a burger. Uh or you stop and you go, Well, I'm already here. I went to the restroom, I saw the sign, their fries look good, their cherry pie looked really good, so I'm gonna go ahead and get that. So it increases our mental hunger, it increases our impulse t impulsivity. There, might as well get it. Oh, that sounds really good. Oh, that that dessert looked really good at Sonic. Oh, that, oh, at Sonic, they have 50 cent foot-long conies. I'm gonna get that today. So those that's how how it happens. Where before we wouldn't necessarily see that unless we're looking through a magazine, we saw it on a billboard. It's a lot different now. So our appetite is constantly being activated without being satisfied. So think about that. Every time we see something, it's activated. It's like, oh, that looks good. Ooh, that sounds good. So then we then we have our our you know, meal prep that we reheated or the dinner that we fixed, and this is the third day we're eating it because we fix so much. So now our simple foods seem boring. You know, our normal portions feel unsatisfying. And so social media when it comes to how we feel about ourselves is no different when it comes to food because we think about if we were to say this about ourselves after looking at social media, well, I feel boring, I'm not going on tons of vacations. Just a normal life isn't very satisfying to me. I don't have very many adventures. I just, you know, clients sometimes will ask me, Well, what's new with you this week? And I usually say, Not much. The same old thing, got the same time, ate the same thing, came to the same place. Not very exciting. So you can look at that and go, wow, that's some might say that's not very satisfying. Then with food, as we look at social media, cravings feel louder than ever. Just like for us, we don't feel enough because that's that that craving is louder than ever because of social media. So, really, when it comes to food, it's not necessarily because we're broken, it's because our brain is just overstimulated with that input. And so, and I don't think we realize how much noise we're getting from the outside world about food. It's a lot. I mean, you might be scrolling and see the newest release of the flavor of Bluebell ice cream and go, oh, that looks really good. Or this new way to make a drink or to make a dessert. And and you might see though, you know, might see five or six different things within three or four seconds that you scroll. So we just think, what's going on? Why am I so hungry? Why can't I be satisfied? And it is the brain going through that stuff, and but we feel like what's wrong with me? I can't get it figured out, and so these are some of the issues, and it's some, and we're gonna talk about how do we kind of overcome some of those things, but the most important thing is to be aware of that, to be aware of that everything that's being input, either conscious or self unconscious, is still going into your brain, and your brain is still dealing with it. So it's just really important to remember that. So, why does all that make us overeat and feel out of control? Why does that happen? So social media is what it trains us to do is more variety equals more satisfaction. That's not necessarily true. Bigger portions equal more pleasure because now, because of the cost, we want a big portion, right? Constant treats, we need constant treats, and social media tell us that's normal, that's not normal. So now we go back to our real life and we look at what's what we're about to eat and go, well, that's not very exciting. Well, that doesn't feel like enough. I need a bigger portion, or this feels really disappointing. So it's kind of like social media shows us the highlight reels of food, kind of like it shows highlight reels of people, but it shows the highlight reels of food. And so we go back to our dinner table and go, well, that's no fun, that's not very good. Because think about when you're a kid, unless you, I mean, let the only way you had to compare your lunch in the cafeteria is how the person next to you, the kid next to you. You couldn't see what is there. This is there's this little kid on TikTok, I think, that that test out the cafeteria food. I think he's real popular.
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:But but but there was, I mean, there was no way to do that when we when you're a kid, you just went to the the cafeteria, and oh your your mom sent you a little Debbie. I didn't get a little Debbie, I just got carrot sticks. And then a baloney, and you got a ham. Exactly. So, and then you go home and you ask your parents for it. Um, but that was really the only way, that was the only comparisons, really. You didn't see anything else. So you didn't really, I mean, that was the big thing is ham ham or baloney. And so we didn't have all that input of all that, all those things we saw on social media. So when we feel like our real food isn't exciting, it's not enough, it's disappointing, it leads us to eat more to chase us that satisfaction because we see it, we see how good that food looks, and let me try it out to see how it tastes. And then maybe we graze all day. We graze all day, maybe because what happens? We're chasing that satisfaction, we're chasing that thing that makes us feel better. And then when we get done eating, we'll go, that didn't make me very happy. It's kind of like happiness. We keep doing different things because we're chasing the happiness, and then we keep doing that, and then we realize after we did it, it really didn't make us happy. So the same thing was is with food. So people will eat and go, Well, I'm not satisfied. Because their brain's telling them you should have all these good things to make you happy, to make you satisfied. So, how do we reset that? The big question. How do we reset that? So do we eliminate anything? Is there is there anything in a balanced life that we should eliminate when we talk about food?
SPEAKER_02:No.
SPEAKER_00:No, why?
SPEAKER_02:Because we live a balanced life and you shouldn't not have it. It's you're gonna end up binging on something else later. Just go ahead.
SPEAKER_00:Right, so get it that way. Yeah, so we're not we're not gonna say eliminate, don't look at social media because it's full of of foods that are gonna get you. It's just a buffer. So, how do we kind of do that? One is no maybe not scrolling food content while you're eating, because you'll notice if if you click a lot on recipes, you're gonna get a lot of recipes. But what happens if you start clicking on other things? Are you gonna be able to change your algorithm? Yes, yeah, so you have control, so decide, you know, I'm not gonna keep clicking on the recipes, I'm just gonna scroll by them real quick. Doesn't mean that you have to close your eyes as you're scrolling or look through your fingers. It just means that just don't click on it, just scroll on by it and try not to notice it. Maybe no scrolling through those meals before you eat a meal. Definitely not while you're eating, not while you're about to eat, because if you do that, you go, all that stuff looks really good. And then I'm gonna have this chicken and rice. That sounds like a lot of fun. And chances are you're not gonna be satisfied. And do you ever scroll while you're hungry? And if you scroll, what what what happens when you scroll when you're hungry?
SPEAKER_01:You get hungrier.
SPEAKER_00:You get hungrier. It's kind of like if you're hungry and you go to the grocery store to go grocery shopping, what happens? If you actually go in and go grocery shopping, you buy more. You buy more too much. Too much, right? And it may and And you just might just walk by and it looks really good. And then you go ahead, oh, that sounds really good. I'll get that. Oh, that sounds really good. So you end up buying stuff you don't need and you buy too much. And as we mentioned, eat before, maybe before you're scrolling. Have you ever noticed going out to dinner with maybe friends? And you don't pick up your phones, you're not scrolling, you're just having a conversation. Maybe it's on a date or with friends, family, whatever it is, you're not scrolling. Do you find that those meals are more satisfying? Maybe it's not even out to eat, maybe it's eating at home. Do you find those meals are more satisfying?
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:Why?
SPEAKER_02:Well, you're able to talk to people instead of looking at a phone.
SPEAKER_00:Right. And and because you're able to, and also you're probably able to slow down. You're paying attention to what you're eating. You're engaged in the food. You're engaged in the conversation. So, too, sometimes when we scroll, we see those foods that kind of come up, but then we also we're not really paying attention to what we're eating because we're getting caught up in what's on the social media. Now, TV is a little bit different now because we don't see as many commercials probably because you fast forward through them. We used to have to sit through a commercial, right? So we used to have to sit to see when Taco Bell had a sale going on, or when little Spud McKenzie was selling beer and oh, that looks good. We had to sit through those and watch all those things. But now we can just fast forward through it. So when we can eat first before we scroll, sometimes it helps us make calmer choices about what we're gonna eat, less impulsive. You know, and if we can focus on just our when we eat our simple breakfasts, our sometimes we repeat lunches, sometimes we limit our snack variety. So we have so if we do that for a week, it can help reset our brain. And it resets it so we have it's almost like we lower our expectations. And we don't say that very often, do we? That we actually want to lower our expectations. But our brains get these high expectations of all this great food we need to be eating that we don't really need and we're not really gonna eat. But is what it does is it it keeps us looking for that great food that we can't ever find. So we keep eating this next thing. Well, that wasn't it. We keep eating the next thing, that wasn't it. Have you ever felt hungry at night or during the day and ate something and go, well, that that didn't satisfy me. That wasn't what I looked at. You're not sure what you're hungry for, so you keep trying going through the pantry to find what it is. And then you end up going, well, I'm still not satisfied. So if we kind of lower our flavor novelty, we lower our brain expectation, we can help kind of reset that after you know five to seven days. So then we start noticing that simple foods, simple meals feel satisfying again. Sometimes, have you ever gone without like sweets for a while and then ate fruit? Fruit, did it did it seem very sweet? And probably probably if it was probably a week or so since you had sugar, sweets, then it probably did it's probably like, man, that's a good apple, that's a good banana. It's because you're resetting. So we have to we have to when we think about the food and and the the senses that the plate or our food brings us, we have to think about how's it smelled? What's the texture? Do we take time eating? That's one thing I'm not very good at is slowing down eating. I can eat and still wait and Kim's not even halfway done her meal. And you know, I really don't take a breath. I don't put my fork down, she does. But those are some things that we can actually do that can help make a difference and help us to feel more satisfied. And and kind of like a lot of things, we have to rebuild some trust in enough. In other words, social media, like a lot of things, shows us excessive constantly. We see excess constantly cars, houses, uh, vacations, food, all kinds of things. Excess. And then we have to decide that enough is not a lack, it's a decision. And sometimes I think when we think, well, this is enough, we think, well, we're lacking something. But really, it's a decision like I'm good with this. This is enough food that my body needs. And it can be really satisfying when we're present with what we are eating. So, kind of the the challenge is if a social media appetite reset, if you might well, for like seven days. And maybe you'll make it seven days, kind of like a fast. Maybe it's two days, maybe you try it for two days. Try not to scroll while you're eating, just one meal and see what happens. Don't scroll when you're hungry, just to see what happens. Maybe you try eating a repeat meal in a couple days to see how that works. Then so you can see how it maybe will keep you calmer, more in control, more satisfied. And again, it may not be a whole week, maybe it's a couple days, maybe it's a couple meals. Just try to see what the difference is, what difference it makes. So, as we think about our appetite, our appetite really didn't grow, our exposure did. So, our exposure to food grew, not necessarily our appetite. When we see, oh, there's more out there, what typically happens? I want more. I mean, that's not just with food, just like any social food, that's of everything. And and food is no different. So we think oftentimes, why just need more willpower? Well, sometimes we just need less stimulation, we need less things to say. Oh, you should have that. It's okay. Your feelings, you should feel that, you should eat that, all those things that go along with that. So, any thoughts, comments, or questions about how social media is breaking our appetite. It's a tricky thing.
SPEAKER_02:So the challenge it makes me hungry.
SPEAKER_00:It makes yes, and it does, and that's not alone. I mean, it does for a lot of us. But just think of that, that we're we're subject to 50 to 100 food cues per hour, which is pretty amazing. And and don't think that that's not very powerful because it's super powerful. So just if nothing else, be aware of those things and start noticing them. Um, because when you become aware and start noticing them, then you can maybe start making some changes. So, so if you have any thoughts, comments, or questions that you think of later, just let me know. And thank you, each of you, for joining us for Healthy Hut. I'm look forward to seeing you right here next time on Healthy Hut.