Gender Influence On Eating Habits

It has been previously canonized that women are more likely to indulge in food as a result of an emotional state. The image of an emotionally distraught woman recklessly indulging in food is a commonly televised one, as well as the pre-menstrual woman who cannot control her hunger. A simple flaw with this trope is the lack of scientific testing in both men and women equally. So much of the research available regarding the influence of mood on eating habits focuses on women. It is important to continue to understand both genders in this context equally. A possible reason for these assumptions is that social ideologies makes food choices between genders different (Levi, Kenny, & Pence, 2006). More specifically, this refers to socially accepted …show more content…
Drawing from this, I expected to see some specific gender differences in how mood affects daily eating habits. The strong relationship between mood and food is evident, but there are some implications that are general. It was important to measure both genders because much of previous research focuses on women. Women are more likely to engage in over-eating as a result of negative emotions than men. For this reason, effects of positive emotions on eating habits are often neglected. The objective of the study is to determine whether or not gender is an important enough variable to make a difference in how food influences what we eat. In conclusion, moods were divided between positive and negative emotions, as well as positive and negative situations. These results were then compared by how much each positive and negative emotion/situation affected how much food was eaten. By using a simple survey, specific emotions and situations were rated by how each statement affected their eating. Furthermore, all positive and negative statements were grouped together and compared by both men and women. This is important in understanding the hypothesis and its suggestion that research in this field is equally important in men, as it