These Are the Food Pics to Avoid on Your Tinder Profile

Dating is tough: you’ve opened four different online dating accounts, invested heavily in your personal brand across all social media platforms (helloooooo LinkedIn), and yet you still seem to end up spending Friday night alone, having a quiet wank and nodding off to an old episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Luckily, a new survey is here to help out with our pathetic love lives. Forget forcing your neighbour’s spaniel to awkwardly pose with you, apparently it’s photos of food that will get the DMs rolling in.

In a study released last week, US dating site Zoosk surveyed 3,733,185 of its dating profiles, along with 364,609,566 first messages between matches to see whether pictures and conversations about certain foods increased responses. The researchers concluded that “food preferences do have an impact on how we interact with each other romantically”—shedding light on why that profile pic of you posing suggestively with a Terry’s Chocolate Orange from Christmas last year is getting you numbers on Tinder.

The results of the Zoosk survey suggest that out of all the foods to share a selfie with, guacamole will get the responses rolling in. Dating profile photos featuring the avocado dip received a 144-percent increase in inbound messages, compared to those with other foods. Other high-achieving foods included potatoes, which garnered a 101 percent increase in messages, chocolate with 100 percent, salad with 97 percent, and sushi with 93 percent.

London Mexican Restaurant Cantina Laredo, which recently opened a bar dedicated entirely to guacamole, told MUNCHIES that they weren’t shocked by the news that pictures of the dip can increase responses between daters. Director Tarryn Ginsberg said: “Avocados have a reputation for being an aphrodisiac, which dates back to as far as the Aztec times due to their desirable shape, rich flavours, and high levels of vitamin E. When made into guacamole, it proves to be a perfect sharing dish to enjoy on a date, increasing interaction between the two partners.”

Avocados might get the right swipes, but the same cannot be said of noodles and pho. Zoosk rated the two Asian dishes as the least appealing to potential suitors. Fried chicken fared even worse, deemed by the survey to actively decrease the rate of messages daters received. Yams were also found to have negative results when it came to response rates.

Sadly, this rejection of dishes associated with certain nationalities and races could be a reflection of the racial prejudices that have been shown to affect POC users’ success rates on dating apps.

MUNCHIES asked Pavla Uru, manager of East London’s ramen restaurant, Shoyru, whether she thought that the survey had got it right when it came to noodles. She said: “To be honest, I can't really imagine having this kind of dish for a date, but we do have a few [dates]. We've even had people who sat next to each other and end up living together. It's not a bad dish, but it's not the best one.”

It’s true what they say. The way to a man’s Tinder profile messages is through his stomach—and perhaps a very specific set of food-based images.