SubscribeMen and Women Eat Differently?
No, it's not just your imagination: men eat more meat than women do. And women consume more fruits and vegetables than the guys.
But who eats the most eggs? Yogurt? Oysters? And who is at most risk for food-borne illness? A recent population survey of 14,000 American adults had at least a few surprises.
The research was done by the Foodborne Disease Active Surveillance Network (which, despite it's name, doesn't actually send out patrols to peer into your refrigerator). But they did do a big survey, and researchers took a look at the data to see whether men and women differed in terms of food consumption and risky behavior.
Who Takes Which Risks?
Of six risky behaviors listed, they did find some gender differences (summarized here):
- Men ate more pink hamburger;
- Men were also more likely to eat runny eggs;
- But women ate more alfalfa sprouts.
(For the record: I may be female but I eat both pink hamburger and runny eggs, and avoid alfalfa sprouts. My avoidance of alfalfa sprouts is not due to fear of disease, though, it's because they taste so darn sprouty. Apparently I am not a poster child for food-borne illness prevention).
The other risky three were raw oysters, unpasteurized milk, and cheese made from unpasteurized milk. Presumably both sexes took similar chances with these.
Veal Versus Carrots
There were other differences in food choices too, like:
- Men ate more meat and poultry, especially duck, veal, and ham. They also ate more shrimp and oysters.
- Women generally ate more vegetables, especially carrots and tomatoes. But strangely enough, men ate more asparagus and brussels sprouts.
- Women were more likely to eat strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and apples than men.
- Men were less likely than women to eat almonds and walnuts, eggs, or yogurt.
- While men ate more meat generally, women were more likely to prefer fresh hamburger--while men would rather grab their meat from the freezer.
Why Do You Think We Eat Differently?
Many of us defy surveys and stereotypes and eat a good healthy variety of foods, regardless of our gender. But 14,000 is a fairly large survey, and may point to some actual differences between the sexes overall.
Would you guess it's because women and men get different messages about what they should eat? Or is an archaic hold-over from our hunter/gatherer days? Any other theories?
I think why men eat differently from women is affected by the psychological bacground that men are more self-indulgent, more practical and more rational (less emotional) - that they tend to avoid time-consuming activities,and some other inborn characters or how they develop their personality as required by the society.
I also find that my female students like to eat snacks more that the male students do during the break session of two lectures.
Replymore 'that' --> more 'than'
Also, that women love to eat various kinds of berries and apples more than men do is similar to (what I notice) that girls and young women like to eat something sour like preserved fruit products.
Go to Thailand, Hongkong and China towns, we will find plenty of women at the stall of preserved fruit products.
ReplyIt's hormonal, I think, that women love the sour foods.
I've never heard that alfalfa sprouts were risky. Why on God's green earth are they risky?
ReplySprouts are good for you if they're well-washed. But suppliers and most consumers don't clean them well enough to get rid of all the fertilizer residue. Even in organic produce, this often means cow or chicken manure.
ReplyI keep reading stories about how batches of supermarket alfalfa sprouts sicken people with too high a dosage of e-coli. I sprout my own, and rinse rinse rinse several times a day. And hope that any buggies left by harvest time are too sparse to cause any problems. So far so good. :-)
ReplyI think it's likely a combination of society's messages and biology.
Hormones can certainly influence what you want to eat. Pregnancy taught me that.
ReplyYeah, menopause too. I want to eat things I've never wanted to eat in my life. I never particularly cared for chocolate and now I can zero in on it like I have chocolate radar.
ReplyThanks Lemaloon, I was wondering the same thing about the sprouts.
I do wonder why they didn't ask about chocolate, if they were trolling for male/female differences. Maybe it's my imagination, but my female friends seem to crave and eat WAY more chocolate. I know I certainly scarf it down fairly frequently.
ReplyI gave a female friend of mine a box of Frango mints. She said when she ate them they gave her the feeling of being in love. You know, Crabby, MEN are not looking for LOVE! Nuf said :-)
ReplyMy experience is that women have much more intense CRAVINGS for chocolate, and might eat it more frequently, but the men I have known probably eat just as much, at least when it is available. I don't recall my husband ever saying he HAD to have chocolate, but if we buy a bag of M&Ms or Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, he'll eat twice as much as me (although I eat my Green and Black's Dark every day - I'm more picky about my chocolate).
And my dad and husband both love(d) chocolate covered cherries, something I can't any woman ever saying she loved.
ReplyMy boyfriends father; give him a large Hershey's bar every now and then and you're in his good books for life.
I've never been a real sucker for chocolate, I'm a big fruit-eater though. Some nice juicy grapes are way more tempting than a block of chocolate.
ReplyCrabby, great - I've just learned I eat like a girl.... -_-
ReplyWeird. I eat like both. By which I mean I have - as defined in this article - "male" eating habits but also very specifically "female" eating habits as well.
I just went into the bathroom and checked my junk...it's all outtie, but now I feel like I should get some kind of test. What do they do to check for hidden ladybusiness? Ultrasound?
Man, if I'm a half-woman I am so gonna clean up in the niche porn market. Then I can afford to pay someone to read Dietblog to me each morning.
ReplyInteresting. I do tend to eat less fruit as it's a lot of work. Cooking meat is almost a meal by itself.
Most fruit needs to be cut/peeled/sliced, etc.
ReplyMy husband of 20 years still doesn't believe it's a meal if there's no meat, especially if it's supper. He's like that "where's the beef" lady. I would go to a lot of work to make a great vegetarian dish, and he would say, "that was pretty good, but I would have liked it better with some meat in it" -- completely defeating the whole purpose. I've trained him not to say that anymore (evil looks will do that) but I'm sure he still thinks it!
ReplyRed I also used to go through phases where I didn't eat much fruit because it was too much work, so maybe our laziness isn't gender-specific. When I get that way now I just look for the no-work-involved fruit. Even when I'm feeling really lazy I can handle washing an apple or grapes, or peeling a banana. I eat a ton of frozen berries and those I just need to pour out of the package.
ReplyI'm pretty lazy when it comes to preparing fruit too...I rarely go for anything that I have to peel/chop/slice, etc. I eat lots of apples, pears, oranges if they're good and juicy, and bananas. Berries I usually buy frozen (unless they're in season) or I'll buy diced frozen mangoes, papayas, peaches, etc. It's just a lot easier that way. But if I can find a really good watermelon, I'll take the time to cut it up and eat it because it's just SO yummy.
ReplyI was happy to hear the news that freezing fruits and veg probably preserved more of the nutrients than we found in fresh ones because it took a look time to get them from picking to the table (I'm talking about supermarkets here, not local stuff at a market). I think my intake of fruit probably triple between knowing it was just as good and the incredible variety of frozen fruit there is now. Not that long ago it seemed like frozen fruit was mostly strawberries or raspberries in sugar syrup. I love throwing a variety of frozen fruit in the blender and it comes out as a great sorbet without adding anything - or adding some water and yogurt for smoothies (never did get why you'd add juice to smoothies if you already had real fruit in there).
ReplyOh geez, my husband is the same way!
Meat makes the meal. Even if he doesn't throw a fit about no meat, he'll comment how I could improve the dish with meat!
Some meals, I have to make us two separate dishes because I just can't handle that much meat. Makes me sick!
ReplyFunny, I eat tons of fruit because it is so easy - peel a banana then eat it, bite straight into an apple, plum, peach, grapes, berries. We easily get our 5 fruits a day, including my male children (but not my male husband). I don't make much meat, partly because it's so much work! The only part of fruit I think is a PITA is having to cut grapes for my sons (my 4 yo could probably eat them whole, but if I'm cutting them for the 2 yo, the older one wants his cut too).
ReplyThat cutting grape thing used to make me nuts - I used to do it weekly for a dozen preschoolers. I think I eventually just switched to something less labor intensive for them.
ReplyI used to PEEL grapes for my younger brother ... (he's 20 now ;-))
Ali
ReplyAli, either you are a wonderful sister or he had some great blackmail he was holding over your head for you to do that!!!
ReplyI think a lot of it has to do in many cases with men simply not wanting to spend a lot of time preparing food. Compared to other meals, meat is pretty easy to prepare, though fruit is pretty easy too.
ReplyGood point. Preparing meat to me might mean a casserole or stir fry or stew .... to my husband it means throw a hunk of red meat on the grill. But if there's no frozen vegetables around he'd have no idea what to serve with it.
ReplyI don't know...I think meat can be kind of time consuming, unless it's like barbecue or something. My husband likes to eat cereal or crackers and cheese spread when he's really hungry because it takes no time to prepare. If I'm there to make burgers into patties or parboil some brats, he'll grill them no problem. But left to his own devices, he'll usually microwave a hot dog before he makes himself a hamburger or a steak.
ReplyI know that my husband is definitely a meat-eater...he also doesn't think a meal is complete without some sort of meat. He also doesn't believe in food taking a long time to prepare and he's been known to eat foods in very strange ways....when he's really hungry, he'll do things like grab the cheese out of the fridge and bite a giant piece right off the block or he'll eat packets of instant oatmeal DRY. I think the reason a lot of men eat raw meat/runny eggs is because they're impatient and they just want to eat. Plus, you can't tell me there isn't a little bit of machismo going on there...the whole caveman thing: "MMM...raw meat!"
I think women probably prefer vegetables and fruit more because A) most of them probably watch their weight more than men do and B) they traditionally probably had to wait for their men to come back with meat, so in the meantime they ate fruits and veggies to survive. Maybe women have less objection to the flavor of fruits and veggies because they HAD to eat them, so they learned to love them. Just a thought.
ReplyIts also about "habit" and bad habits are difficult to break. We stirfry and consume more olive oil. My mom and my wife's mom never heard of either. They both have very poor health.
ReplyI eat vegetables, too and want to become slim
ReplyRegarding alfalfa sprouts, Dr. Weil (who I think is very knowledgable and was talking about omega 3s and the benefits of mushrooms years before everybody else) says that there are natural toxins in alfalfa sprouts...okay in small doses, but should not be a diet mainstay.
ReplyMy boyfriend is a vegetarian because years ago he decided that if "he wasn't willing to kill it himself...he wouldn't eat it." I'm a vegetarian too, but here's where the difference comes in: he's all about cheese and sour cream.. ..puts it in everything. He likes sweets too, but as one person said, he never "needs" them like we women seem to.
It is well known that women eat more vegetables than men, probably one of the reasons that they have a longer life expectancy.
ReplyI don't eat very many vegetables and I am female.
Replyheh funny research :)
Replyi observed that most of the guy like to eat meat
Food cravings have always fascinated me, probably because mine used to be so bad. Sugar and chocolate are biggies for women. A common cause of chocolate cravings is magnesium deficiency. Magnesium is easily depleted and often lacking in the American diet. Often a daily magnesium supplement stops the urge for a Snickers or Godiva. A supplement will also help you feel more calm.
ReplyThat definitely doesn't surprise me. I eat like a typical guy and my gf eats like a typical girl.
I think we eat differently because we have different fitness goals. My goal is to build muscle and gain weight and hers is to keep her body fat low and maintain a lower healthy weight.
ReplyMeat produces more heat and energy when eaten. Women have the ability to survive on a slower metabolism and can perfectly go on with vegetables, grains, fruits and the like.
ReplyHow the human is build, not only the teeth but also the hands, gives evidence that man was made to pick up little things like grains, vegetables, berries and fruits. Only in very cold climates where the plants would not bring any produce man was forced to use his brain to figure out a way to hunt animals. Animals have lots of protein which supports the muscle build that was needed to hunt. Also meat provides heat and plenty of energy. It might as well come into play that meat can have an effect on the psyche and with causing extra tension and even aggression helps to deal with the stress during a hectic day.