Supporting a losing sports team 'bad for health'
The day after a defeat for their local side, fans consume more fatty foods such as pizza, cake and cookies, and more calories overall, than on a normal day, researchers found.
In contrast, people in cities whose team win tend to eat more healthily, while the diets of those whose local team have not played a match remained unchanged.
The effects are particularly pronounced in cities with the most passionate supporters, after games between teams of a similar standard, and after an agonisingly close defeat or a convincing victory, the study showed.
Fans feel a threat to their identity after a defeat for their team and use comfort eating as a coping mechanism, while victories boost their self-control, the research on American Football supporters suggests.
Further experiments on French football fans backed up the findings, but found that the effects on eating habits could be cancelled out if fans consciously put the victory or defeat into context by thinking about other things which were important to them before eating.
Dr Yann Cornil and Prof Pierre Chandon of INSEAD Business School, who published their study in the Psychological Science journal, said: "Even if you are rooting for a perennial loser, there is a solution if you are concerned about healthy eating.
"After a defeat, write down what is really important to you in life. In our studies, this simple technique, called 'self affirmation,' completely eliminated the effects of defeats."
Previous research had shown that sporting defeats could lead to rises in alcohol-related crime, traffic deaths, domestic violence and heart attacks among fans.
To examine whether people's eating habits were also affected, the researchers asked 726 people to keep food diaries on Sundays when their local team had an NFL game and on the following two days, covering a total of 475 games involving 30 teams.
On the Monday after a game, those in cities whose team had lost ate on average 16 per cent more saturated fat and gained 10 per cent more calories from their food than on a normal Monday.
In contrast, people in cities with a winning team ate nine per cent less saturated fat and five per cent fewer calories than usual.
The effects were greater in the eight cities with the most devoted fans, where saturated fat consumption rose by 28 per cent after a defeat and decreased by 16 per cent after a win.
Matches between closely matched teams also exaggerated the results, as did a narrow defeat or a convincing victory.
However, eating patterns for all fans remained normal on the Sunday of a game – most likely because matches take place in the afternoon or evening after most meals have been eaten – and on the following Tuesday, regardless of the result.
A separate study of French football fans found that similar effects happened after participants were asked to write about a game that their team had either won or lost.
However, eating patterns reverted to normal when people wrote down a list of things which were truly important to them before eating, in order to put the result into perspective, the researchers found.
Replies
lol how come i have lost weight during the last couple of season then?
I need a long stiff drink, or thousand.
A few chuffs on the Mr Juicy bottle all sweet.
No problem here.
Take my medicine
Fall down
Pass out
NO PROBLEM
is thats way im loseing weight where my my miss i need just a little be more oh darling where are u
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