Here is more fodder for those who believe that men are from Mars and women from Venus. A new study says there are significant differences in their eating habits too.

Men were significantly more likely to eat meat and poultry products, especially duck, veal, and ham, said the study whose findings were presented last week at the International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases in Atlanta, Georgia.They were also more likely to consume certain shellfish such as shrimp and oysters.

Women, on the other hand, were more likely to eat vegetables, especially carrots and tomatoes. As for fruits, they were more likely to eat strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and apples. Women also preferred dry fruits, such as almonds and walnuts, and were more likely to consume eggs and yogurt when compared to men, says the study. The findings are based on a study of over 14,000 American adults by the Food-borne Disease Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet).

There were some exceptions, however. Men were significantly more likely to consume asparagus and Brussels sprouts than women while women were more likely to consume fresh hamburgers (as opposed to frozen, which the men preferred).

The researchers also looked at reported behaviour regarding consumption of six risky foods: undercooked hamburger, runny or undercooked eggs, raw oysters, un-pasteurised milk or cheese made from it, and alfalfa sprouts.

Men were significantly more likely to eat undercooked hamburger and runny eggs while women were more likely to eat alfalfa sprouts.

Meanwhile, a new study also presented in Atlanta, Georgia, says the proportion of epidemics linked to the consumption of leafy vegetables has substantially increased in the last 35 years.
What's more, researchers at the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have found that the increase in food-borne epidemics has far outstripped the increase in consumption of green leafy vegetables.

 

Prompted by the high profile E. coli outbreaks associated with spinach and lettuce in 2006, researcher Michael Lynch and his colleagues analysed over 10,000 food-borne disease outbreaks reported between 1973 and 2006.About five percent of all food-borne outbreaks were found to be linked to leafy greens. Most of these were caused by norovirus, but a few were caused by salmonella (10 percent) and E. coli (nine percent). "Given recent experiences that was not a total surprise. What was interesting was when we compared the numbers to consumption data," said Lynch.

Comparing per capita consumption of leafy greens with the proportion of food-borne outbreaks, Lynch found that "during the 1986-1995 period, leafy greens consumption increased 17 per cent from the previous decade, the proportion of all food-borne disease outbreaks increased 60 per cent."Reinforcing the link, leafy green vegetable consumption increased nine percent during 1996-2005, and associated outbreaks increased 39 per cent.