Food Choices While Dining Out
You may think that you decide what to eat for lunch at work when dining with colleagues. New research from Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital indicates that individuals generally eat what their friends and co-workers choose. Investigator Douglas Levy, Ph.D., and his team reported that individuals “tend to mirror the food choices of others in their social circles, which may explain one way obesity spreads through social networks.” In this instance the team found that food choices by people connected to each other were more alike than different and that this effect was stronger for healthy foods than for unhealthy ones. Another researcher, Mark Pachucki, Ph.D., an associate professor of sociology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, noted that if your eating habits “shape how your co-workers eat – even just a little – then changing your food choices for the better might benefit your co-workers as well.” Learn more: Dr. Weil’s Guide To Popular Diets
Source:
Douglas E. Levy et al, “Social connections and the healthfulness of food choices in an employee population,” April 22, 2021.
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