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Does gender make a difference when it comes to the way we eat?
Women, generally, have also been shown to eat less when they are with a desirable male partner than when they are with other women. I think I’ve moved past that. I would have spent three hungry decades if I tried to limit my intake when eating with my husband.
It’s no surprise that women are more likely than men to be on diets and are more dissatisfied with their body weight and shape. One large survey found that, of those people who were a healthy weight, 23 percent of the women perceived themselves as overweight, while only 9 percent of the men did. At the same time, of those who were actually overweight, 41 percent of the men versus 13 percent of the women thought their weight was about right. Men are obviously more accepting of their bodies and as a result seem to have a more relaxed approach about their food choices. To compound this, studies show that women think men favor much thinner women than the men in fact say they prefer.
Still, I think we can learn from each other. While as women we can be tough on ourselves, it probably means we tend to be more attentive to our health. And with 87 percent of American women saying they are the person most responsible for their household’s meals, we’re the primary gatekeepers for the food that comes into our family kitchens. I think the men in our lives often benefit from our vigilance. But at the same time, women’s diets can improve when they share meals with men. A friend goes the extra mile to serve healthy foods at home because her physician husband makes unhealthy choices when he’s on the run at the hospital. Another friend eats fewer sweet treats than she might because of her husband’s aversion to sugar.
Rachel Johnson, Ph.D., M.P.H., R.D. is senior nutrition advisor to EatingWell Magazine and dean of the University of Vermont College of Agriculture & Life Sciences.
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