Over Indulgence and Science

Gluttony at its Finest

Over the weekend, Cornell University released a study which is providing new reasons for men rocking the 'dad bod'.  Apparently, ladies, when your hubby eats 2 full size pizzas and downs multiple gallons of soda he is actually trying to impress you. I know, I for one think (if this research is accurate) someone should let the men know this isn't their best option to impress a date.

The Study

The researcher's at Cornell University observed eating habits of 105 customers over a two week period at an all you can eat buffet. They determined that women, regardless of whether they were dining with other women or with men, ate relatively the same amount of food. The men, however, were another story. On average, when a man was dining with a woman they are 92% more pizza (1.5 slices more, on average) and they had 86% more salad. When men dined with other men they ate significantly less. 

The Science

So, what gives? Why would men purposely eat 92% more food when they are in the company of women? According to the study, they believe men do this to show off. Overeating is considered a risky behavior, and therefore scarfing down an entire pizza a man is essentially saying "look what I can handle".  Another form of this behavior are the "all you can eat contests", however those normally do not feature many women. The difference is 'competition' versus 'impressing the opposite sex'. 

Dave Gonzales, from Geek.com, concisely sums up the study's main point:

"Back before we had magazines and advertising to make everyone feel bad about how they look, the ability to eat a massive amount of food in one sitting was just as much a showing of prosperity than anything resembling eating because one is hungry. Stuffing your face full of meat until you are fat just went to show that you had the most meat in the surrounding area." (Gonzales, 2015). 

I Ponder...

Are men really resorting back to caveman behaviors by securing all of the pizza for themselves? It's a theory, but I'd like all the gentleman reading this to know there are more effective ways. I would think projecting a healthy lifestyle (IE. preventing heart disease, diabetes, etc.) would replace the desire to show who can devour the most. It would be interesting to see if a similar study would produce the same results in the future. 

http://foodpsychology.cornell.edu/OP/eating_to_impress