there is no gender equality at the table – breaking latest news

Tell me who you are and I’ll tell you what you’ll eat: biological sex influences choices at the table even more than the place where we live or cultural factors. So men love fatty and salty foods, women go crazy for carbohydrates; he can’t resist snacking at night, she eats mostly in the first part of the day. This is underlined by a study by the Department of Endocrinology of the Federico II University of Naples in publication, according to which also the tendency towards obesity and the response to weight loss treatments vary according to gender.

Sex hormones

All “fault” of the sex hormones: Gender differences have an impact on what we choose at the table and how he explains Annamaria Colaopresident of the Italian Society of Endocrinology and professor of Endocrinology at the Federico II University of Naples, «food preferences in the Western world they are influenced more by the biological components linked to sex, by the hormonal structure and by the physiological changes of the reproductive state such as the menstrual cycle and menopause, than by the social components linked to the roles culturally attributed to male and female identities. Estrogens, for example, act on the hypothalamic nuclei, which control hunger and satiety, activating the cannabinoid system which stimulates appetite and induces in women the desire for foods rich in carbohydrates. Men on the other hand are more likely to eat fatty foods because testosterone activates the dopamine systema brain neurotransmitter that generates a greater feeling of strength and aggression». With menopause, however, greater “gender equality” is achieved because estrogen decreases and female food choices approach those of men.

Calories and kilos too many

Sex also changes the propensity to eat at the “right” times: to support the biological clock, calorie intake should gradually decrease from morning to evening but, as Colao explains, «almost half of women concentrate their food consumption in the first part of the day against one in three men; men tend to eat more in the eveningwhen cortisol levels are lower. This leads to worse metabolic consequences because they are “out of phase” with respect to the biological time and this translates into an increased risk of developing obesity, also because men are more inclined than women to wake up to eat snacks at night». According to Colao, these hormonal differences in the choice of when and what to eat can also be reflected in health response to anti-obesity therapies: «Clinical experience with these drugs is still limited and it is not yet clear how much gender differences affect their efficacy, but there are strong signs that the effects are different in men and women. Pharmacological therapiesalso because they are expensive, they should therefore be adapted to the patient’s sex and to do this, more in-depth clinical studies are needed that also focus on gender differences».