The feeling of social inferiority… is it fattening

When people feel socially inferior, they tend to crave more fatty foods have shown experiments of researchers from the…
Technological University of Nanyang in Singapore and the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
In their work, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the Bobby Cheon and Ying-Yi Hong describe four studies carried out and which have led to the same conclusions: the feelings of social inferiority can cause in people the desire to consume more food and foods with a lot of fat.
The previous research has shown that people from the lower level of the economic spectrum tend to be more obese than those in the higher, the researchers note, but there were a few items on the real cause. In this new effort, however,scientists conducted experiments that showed that the feeling of inferiority is a possible cause.
In the context of the four studies, the volunteers were asked to imagine that they belong to specific social / economic levels. Some were invited to see themselves as part of, or close to the bottom level, while others as part of, or near the middle or at the highest level. Then, they were asked to complete a questionnaire about their desire for food in a virtual buffet, and to describe what kind of food they wanted more to eat. In one of the four studies, the volunteers were asked to choose food from a real buffet with a wide variety of dishes.
According to the researchers, the volunteers, who were asked to imagine themselves as part of, or near the bottom of the social scale not imagined themselves to eat more in the virtual buffet, but also ate more when they were in front of the actual buffet. The same group was found, also, that it wished the most fatty foods and consumed when given the opportunity, compared with other volunteers.
These findings, claim the researchers, suggests that often the feelings of inferiority is the cause for which the people at the bottom of the economic scale eat unhealthy food, a habit which leads to weight gain.
The researchers suggest that such a reaction could have its roots in the adaptive tendency of man, starting from when it was particularly important for those who have not had a stable source of food to eat more when they were available food and to focus on more fatty foods, which would supply the body with fat, which will be used in difficult times.
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