When it comes to eating habits, men and women reinforce the
old saying they come from different planets: they have different tastes in food
with men favoring meat and poultry while women tend to prefer fruits and
vegetables.
The study was based on a survey of more than 14,000 American
adults in 10 states of the Foodborne Disease Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet)
between May 2006 and April 2007. They were questioned about their eating
habits, including high-risk foods for foodborne illness in the past seven days.
“We thought it would be interesting to see whether there
were any gender differences. To our knowledge, there have been studies in the
literature on gender differences in eating habits, but nothing this extensive,”
lead researcher Dr. Beletshachew Shiferaw said in a prepared statement
according to the Washington Post.
Dr. Shiferaw found that men were more likely than women to
eat a wide variety of meat such as poultry and veal. For example, 21 percent of
males had eaten ham in the past week vs. 18 percent of women. Women, instead,
were more likely than men to eat vegetables and fruits. For example, 35 percent
of women reported eating carrots at least once in the past week, compared with
29 percent of men. Thirty-seven percent of women reported eating tomatoes,
compared with 32 percent of men. The difference remained the same when it came to
fruits such as strawberries, raspberries and nuts.
In addition, men were more likely to eat risky foods like
undercooked hamburgers and runny eggs, while women were more likely to eat alfalfa
sprouts.
According to Dr. David L. Katz, director of the Prevention
Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn., the
difference in eating habits between women and men is due mainly to biology, but
also “more obvious are cultural influences, which suggest that salads and
quiche are dainty; hunks of meat manly.”
“The notion that men and women differ systematically, if not
altogether consistently, in food preferences has long been known. The issue
was perhaps never captured more pithily than this: ‘Real men don’t eat quiche,’”
the Washington Post quoted Katz.
Dr. Shiferaw said the information is important for public
health officials: “The reason we looked at consumption and risky behaviors was
to see if there was a statistically significant difference between men and
women and if this information could be used by health educators to target
interventions.”
The findings of the study were presented Wednesday at the
2008 International Conference on Emerging Infectious Disease in Atlanta, Georgia.
