Food Temptation: Men and Women Respond Differently
An intriguing study sheds some light on gender differences when it comes to abilities to resist temptation of food.
In an exercise in cruelty, doctors asked 23 men and women of healthy weight to go on a three-day fast and then tempted them with morsels of their favorite foods and trips to buffets where study subjects were told they could not partake.
The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, showed that men's brains looked calmer and worked less when they consciously faced temptation, but women's brains lit up in emotion and hunger desire areas.
Dr. Gene-Jack Wang, lead author of the study (and in my opinion, the proprietor of the coolest name on the planet) suggests that this may explain the gender differences in obesity (33% in males, 35.3% in women, 2006). Other diet experts however think environment and culture, not biology, explain the roots of obesity. Elisabetta Politi, the nutrition director at the Duke Diet and Fitness Center in Durham N.C, points to other explanations for the disparity, including;
- The number of women who are around food preparing it
- The natural biologic tendency for women to have higher body fat for pregnancy
- The struggle to lose weight after pregnancy
- More stationary work in careers.
It would appear then that women may be more in denial about their temptations rather than inferior at resisting them. Still, I tend not to believe that this is a big factor in the discrepancy between male/female obesity.
It would be more interesting to see a similar study with obese vs. non-obese, rather than trying to weed out gender differences. I think it's a fascinating study, but I don't think this will change the way in which we treat obesity.
Source: ABC News
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Hi Mike, it is an interesting study and I also wonder if it doesn't have to do with a study I read a long time ago that men were more likely to turn to alcohol whereas women were more likely to turn to food under stress. As far as i know men and women have different % body fat from puberty onwards and not just pregnancy.
ReplyInteresting - It's seems logical that men and women are tempted by different things.. I agree with you regarding the body fat differences, too. I'm pretty sure they take shape around puberty as you mention.
ReplyI don't see 33% obesity in men vs. 35.5% obesity in women as being a huge difference. I agree with you, Mike...I'd like to see the study done using obese vs. non-obese people. I've read that certain individuals with anorexia were studied and their brains actually seem to function on a higher level when they don't eat...there is a school of thought that certain individuals are more prone to developing anorexia because their brains function better when they're deprived of food.
I will also say from experience that my husband's brain is DEFINITELY not calm when he is starving and is around a buffet. Whenever we go out to Old Country Buffet, he doesn't eat all day and then salivates madly when he sees the roast beef on the buffet. He inevitably takes 3-4 plates of beef and potatoes and just pigs out.
ReplySpectra - I think I'm of a similar mold as your husband, lol... although I wouldn't be able to go until dinner without eating. There is nothing calm about me when I'm hungry.
ReplyYes, they respond differently.
I have read that women can not resists against sweet stuff like men.
Men are more resistible.
Replynot always, in my house it it the gut who eats the sweets
ReplyI'd be interested in knowing exactly what the participants were thinking and feeling. And, if there was a control group - those who hadn't been fasting and if there were any differences in that group.
Women are programmed from early on to have all sorts of distorted views about their bodies and eating. I guarantee there was at least one woman with a distorted body image who was thinking she didn't want to put back on the weight she might have lost during the fast.
Perhaps other women were thinking, "If I eat that I will gain weight and have to do 10x the cardio my husband will have to do in order to lose it! I so hate him for that!" ;)
Really though, I'd be more interested in the hormonal and physiological responses as it relates to brain activity.
I'd also like to see what the men's brain did if they were offered a beer. I know plenty of men who even like sugary food but refuse to say no to alcohol.
ReplyI think men and women both have a love/hate relationship with food, and though it is true that our biological compositions differ, however, I think we can always find ways to control food, just like we control other urges in life, and maybe beat genetics..
I agree with the women in this blog - my hsband is the dessert eater in our house! He has the freedom to do so since he won't end up with inflated hips like mine the next morning !:)
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