Study: Eating Patterns for Men, Women Different for Meat, Vegetables

According to scientific research, men and women do tend to be different when it comes to eating. This was all presented at the 2008 International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases. They said that in general, men are most likely to choose meat and poultry items over fruits and vegetables while women would often choose fruits and vegetables instead of meat. The study that was conducted had over 14,000 American adult participants in a survey that outlined their eating habits including higher risk foods for foodborne illness. The findings where conducted by a recent population survey of the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network, as reported by the American Society for Microbiology.

As far as our families eating habits, I could greatly relate to this research study that was conducted by the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network. When we eat our meals at the dinner table, it is usually the men who go straight for the meat and often want it at every setting. The women in our family will often go for the vegetables instead but it isn't because of our distaste for meat or poultry, we just seem to prefer the vegetables over the meat.

When I eat my meals, I usually try to eat meat but find myself both only eating a portion of it or I end up mixing it in with the vegetables and then eating it. I enjoy meat but not as much as my husband does.

Our children seem to play into this study also. The boys seem to want the meat more than the vegetables and the girls prefer to eat their greens more than they would the meat. We often have to sit and watch them eat their food to make sure that they are getting the proper intake of each. If we did not watch them, they will usually just eat what they prefer instead of a little bit of everything.

Growing up was also a lot like the research suggest. My dad would often eat meat to the point of eating just meat instead of the rest of his food and I would usually end up going for the vegetables.