Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Single women eat salad....

This is interesting from an evolutionary perspective.

What you eat depends on your sex and eating companions

In a naturalistic study, we investigated the influence of gender, group size and gender composition of groups of eaters on food selected for lunch and dinner (converted to total calories per meal) of 469 individuals (198 groups) in three large university cafeterias. In dyads, women observed eating with a male companion chose foods of significantly lower caloric value than those observed eating with another woman. Overall, group size was not a significant predictor of calories, but women's calories were negatively predicted by numbers of men in the group, while the numbers of women in the group had a marginally significant positive impact on calorie estimates. Men's calorie totals were not affected by total numbers of men or women. This study supports previous investigations, but is unique in making naturalistic observations.


Interesting isn't it. Women are trying to impress potential mates by limiting their food intake, a display of restraint, or control. This is a woman who cares about her appearance, who is not a greedy pig.....

Here is what the Guardian says about it:

Young women use their food to send a signal to men, suggests the study. Just like clothing accessories, they pick meals to enhance their desirability to the opposite sex. "The salad leaves are meant to say, 'I'm pretty; I'm attractive; I take care of myself'," says Young.

And the pressure increases with the number of potential partners around. As for the men, they didn't watch what they scoffed at all.

I like the fact that men do not give a toss about their own diets!

8 comments:

Rachel said...

pretty sickening, isn't it?!

Jim said...

It's not that men don't care about their diet, they just don't care what other people think about their diet!

jimpurdy1943@yahoo.com said...

Or could it be that men do care, but they don't know enough about the nutrition and calories of foods to make informed decisions?

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Chris said...

Interesting thing to think about. I mean I think I am eating healthily - meat, eggs, fat, low carb etc. But 99% of people wouldn't think that is healthy at all.

I wonder if this is also a reason why women find it difficult to go low carb - because other people think it is unhealthy?

Indomitable Spirit said...

Hi Chris

I think it's more to do with the current prevailing orthodoxy that low fat is the way to go.

cheers

Avril

pieter d said...

Hi all,

Here's a somewhat related and interesting study about sex differences in food preferences of Hadza hunter-gatherers. Probably less cultural influence and more 'natural' choices...

http://www.epjournal.net/filestore/EP07601616.pdf

Anonymous said...

It's not that men don't care about their diets.

And its not that men don't care about what other people think of their diets.

Nor is it that men don't know enough about food to adjust their diets.

The lesson is that women don't care about men's diets. If they did, men would eat differently.

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