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Men Overeat Four Times More Than Usual At Social Gatherings

by Hannah Joy on Dec 7 2016 12:06 PM
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Highlights

  • In the UK, 12 million people suffer from compulsive overeating
  • Men ate 30 percent more than the usual and are at greater risk for developing chronic diseases
  • Focusing more on people than the food can help avoid overeating at social gatherings
Men tend to overeat at social gatherings than their friends to manifest their manliness. Gulping more amounts of food is a way to portray their valor and quality of food does not matter at this point.
Cornell Food and Brand Lab finds a new study saying, that men are at risk of overeating in social situations even when there is no incentive to do so.

"Even if men aren't thinking about it, eating more than a friend tends to be understood as a demonstration of virility and strength," explains co-author Kevin Kniffin, PhD.

Overeating at social gatherings Researchers have selected college going students who were of the same weight to participate in the study. The study was published in Frontiers in Nutrition.

A competition was held for these participants. They were given the choice of choosing between the two groups, that included, eating chicken wings with cheering spectators or eating the chicken wings with no spectators.

The prize given to the winners is a plastic medal. The competitors did not care about the prize but concentrated fully on the food and ate four times more than the normal intake.

Results showed that, men who had cheering spectators ate 30 percent more than usual than the one’s who did not have any spectators to cheer.

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On the contrary, women ate less when present infornt of the spectators and have reported that this experience as somewhat embarrassing.

"Focus on your friends and not the food," suggests Brian Wansink, PhD, lead author, Director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab and author of Slim by Design.

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The implications were obvious from tailgates to holidays to all-you-can-eat night and concludes saying, "If you want to prove how macho you are, challenge your friend to a healthy arm wrestle instead of trying to out-eat him."

Social gathering helps to interact with diverse individuals from various social and community groups for distinct purposes. Social gatherings can be celebrating various occasions, meetings, workplace gatherings, party’s, etc.

Overeating is consumption of excess amounts of food which often leads to obesity and may be regarded as eating disorder which usually happens during festivals or while on holidays.

Some signs and symptoms to look out for are:
  • fatigue
  • eating even when not hungry (binge eating)
  • eating alone or rapidly
  • depression or mood swings
Overeating can lead to various medical conditions like high cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, sleep apnea, depression, kidney disease, arthritis, bone deterioration and stroke.

Treat overeating with the following:
  • To effectively dealing with feelings
  • To eating comfortably in a wide variety of situations
  • To manage situations like parties and Christmas
  • To Sleeping well
  • To manage stress
  • To building up self-worth and
  • Being able to say “no” to food when needed
Source-Medindia


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