Gender-Specific Comfort Foods

Researchers at Cornell and McGill Universities have ‘discovered’ what most of us probably knew by instinct, and reported their findings in the journal Physiology and Behavior. Women who feel sad or depressed usually turn to ice cream and cookies, while men who are feeling upbeat tend towards steak dinners. Women feel guilty about their indulgencies later, so that the dessert-type calories don’t do much good in the long run. Men, on the other hand, feel good about rewarding themselves ‘with a good meal’.

What’s the message? As if we didn’t know, men and women are different, and such differences should be taken into account when trying to improve dietary intake in healthy directions. Easier said than done!