Does Gender affect our diet?

In today’s society with weight, fitness, beauty and vanity consuming so much of our daily thoughts and time I am curious to know whether or not there is any difference in the amount of  “unhealthy” food consumed by each gender? Well, what exactly is “unhealthy”? I would describe unhealthy foods as those high in calories, fats, and artificial flavorings and sugars. Why as humans do we eat food that science has proved to be harmful to our health when food’s basic purpose is to sustain us and provide us with the necessary energy for living?

I think that is a difference between how much unhealthy food is eaten by each gender because women as a gender have to carry young, and maintain the necessary amount of body fat to stay fertile. This, however, is a slippery slope when added factors such as fitness, metabolism and bad habits come into effect. 

I propose that a series of observational studies be conducted to test this theory. I propose that a vending machine with a small camera embedded inside be placed in random locations throughout the country to test this theory amongst people of different geological locations, ages, races and gender in their natural habitat over a 4 week time period. This way, the women will not feel pressured to be healthy because they know someone is watching.

In this experiment there will be no control or placebo because it is simply a cataloging of the ratio of men to women that purchase things form this “unhealthy” vending machine. Also in this experiment the independent variable is the people who visit the vending machine and whether or not they actually purchase anything supposedly unhealthy. The dependent variable is the food. What one person’s opinion of healthy or unhealthy food might be the opposite of another’s.

In this experiment the control group will be the people who do not purchase anything from the vending machines and the experimental group will be the individuals who do. In order to achieve informed consent there will be a small disclaimer written in fine print on the vending machine stating that if money is entered into the machine by any person they are subject to being part of the experiment. Since this experiment will be conducted in several places at once the results will be replicated or contradicted each time.

In this experiment there will be no room for experimental bias because it is only recording and comparing the numbers and genders of each customer.