Turns out who you sup with could effect your waistline as much as when and what you eat. The Huffington Post points us to a recently released study published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology.
In doing the study, researchers hoped to gain understanding of how body image and gender of dining partners affects the eating habits of women. The study hypothesized that "the attempt to appear feminine will be empirically demonstrated by the purchase of fewer calories by women in mixed-gender groups than by women in same-gender groups."
In other words: Put one dude at the table and most ladies will reconsider that second hot dog. Sort of obvious, right?
But while finding that initial hypothesis to be true, researchers additionally turned up unsuspected eating habits in men, who seem to think eating large quantities is a way to impress the ladies. Men in mixed gender groups consumed on average 200 more calories than when eating in same gender groups.
What the report neglects to spend sufficient time on is that the food used in the study was supplied by Aramark, the university's food-service provider and the company that's responsible for serving terrible hot dogs in baseball stadiums across the country. If Aramark's involved, we should all be eating less.
