Why Eating Like a Man Could Be Making You Fat
Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images
If you assume steak is a manly dinner and
salads are girly, you’re not alone. Gendered stereotypes play a big role
in how we think about food, and may even be causing you to make less
healthy diet choices, researchers have found.
Academics at the University of Manitoba and Yale University
studied how gender stereotypes affected food choices by asking three
groups of people to unscramble a series of words, Pacific Standard reported.
One group unscrambled words that were stereotypically masculine, like
“football” and “hunting,” the second group received words that were
stereotypically feminine, like “ballet” and “lipstick,” and the third
group got words that were gender-neutral. After unscrambling the words,
people were asked to indicate whether they preferred healthy or
not-so-healthy food items (for example, baked chicken or fried chicken)
and were also asked to rate how willing they were to make healthy food
choices in general.Both men and women who were exposed to the masculine terms showed a preference for unhealthy foods. “[P]riming masculinity led both male and female participants to prefer unhealthy foods, while priming femininity led both male and female participants to prefer healthy foods,” the authors wrote. The results of the study were published in the journal Social Psychology.
Study participants also thought food tasted better and said they were more likely to purchase it if the packaging was consistent with gender norms. Healthy food in feminine packaging was rated as more attractive and better tasting, while unhealthy food in masculine packaging received high marks. “Stereotype incongruent” products received lower ratings.
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