Some people hate it, but others love the trend: Instagram, Twitter and Facebook users sharing pictures of meals and food. Some days, your respective social media feed could be full of pictures of food you're not eating. This can have many immediate side effects like envy, annoyance or - naturally - hunger.

A new study has revealed that too viewing many food photos might actually decrease your enjoyment of your next meal. A study carried out by Ryan Elder and Jeff Larson of Brigham Young University has found that the diner's 'satiation' (i.e. drop in employment) increases if they have previously looked at a lot of food photographs.

They tested this by showing photos to two different groups: one team saw pictures of salty foods, another of sweet foods. The participants were then given peanuts to eat. The 'salty' group tended to rate their enjoyment of the peanuts lower than the 'sweet' group.

Elder explains "in a way, you’re becoming tired of that taste without even eating the food. It’s sensory boredom – you’ve kind of moved on. You don’t want that taste experience anymore". However, he also points out "you do have to look at a decent number of pictures to get these effects. It’s not like if you look at something two or three times you’ll get that satiated effect."

There you go, food sharers: next time you're considering posting a picture of your food, just remember you could be ruining someone else's appetite. That meal had better be worth boasting about. As for the viewers, you probably don't need to follow every enthusiastic foodie on Twitter or Instagram. Your taste buds will thank you for it.