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Feelings of inferiority and over-eating linked for first time

By RJ Whitehaed

- Last updated on GMT

© iStock
© iStock

Related tags Food

People who feel socially inferior eat more, a Hong Kong-Singapore study has found, suggesting that feeling poor is enough to trigger over-eating.

Researchers believe that a strategy employed by social animals like humans ensures that the the weakest compensate by storing energy from food calories consumed from cheap food.

This strategy thought to compensate for the additional stress of having low social status, said Bobby Cheon, of Nanyang Technological University. 

In this study, we questioned whether the relationship between low socioeconomic status and obesity required an actual deficit in social and economic resources, or whether the mere perception or feeling of a deficiency was sufficient​,” said Cheon, who carried out the research with co-author Hong Ying-yi, of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. 

The scientists showed images to provoke a feeling of low social status in the test subjects. Through the test they portrayed a ladder representing society and asked the subjects to compare themselves to people either at the top of the ladder or at the bottom.

The subjects were then asked to think and write about what it would feel like to interact with someone else at the same rung of the ladder.

The idea is that most people are going to feel relatively lacking or deprived of these resources that represent status when comparing themselves with the top rung of the ladder, which produces a feeling of being low in social class or rank​,” Cheon said. 

This manipulation doesn't seem to produce the feelings of stress and insecurity that is associated with actual low socioeconomic status or poverty. Yet this makes the manipulation even more appropriate since we are seeking to demonstrate that increased appetite associated with feelings of low socioeconomic status is not simply a result of eating in response to stress​.” 

Participants who felt socially inferior would more likely associate pizza and fried chicken with pleasant words, suggesting that their subconscious preferred high-calorie foods. Moreover, this group also consumed 65% more calories than the higher socioeconomic group.

These results suggest that feeling socially inferior not only changes the perception of food but can trigger actual food intake, the researchers said. 

One snacking or meal session in a laboratory may not be especially meaningful. But, for people who chronically feel low subjective socioeconomic status, this may translate to a modest but persistent increase in caloric intake that may gradually develop into obesity over an extended period of time​,” Cheon told Asian Scientist Magazine. 

More research is no needed on the systems that regulate the body’s appetite by studying hormones such as leptin and ghrelin.

Independent of actual financial deprivation or stress associated with poverty and low socioeconomic status, simply feeling poor is a potential risk factor for excess caloric intake​,” Cheon added. 

Interventions targeting obesity among people of lower socioeconomic means may need to address these psychological factors in addition to facilitating access to healthier diets​.”

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The deal will give China’s CITC and the Carlyle Group franchise rights for the next two decades, and CITC a controlling stake in the business. The American fast-food chain will retain the remaining 20% of the business.

China and Hong Kong represent an enormous growth opportunity for McDonald’s​,” Steve Easterbrook, McDonald’s chief executive, said in a statement.

This new partnership will combine one of the world’s most powerful brands and our unparalleled quality standards with partners who have an unmatched understanding of the local markets​.”

McDonald’s has been clawing its way back to respectability after a string of setbacks began most prominently in 2014, when a supplier was exposed after using raw material past its use by date, and unsanitary food manufacturing practises were identified.

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In December, the head of the China Food and Drug Administration said the watchdog had uncovered as many as half a million illegal food-safety violations in the first nine months of the year.

Related topics Policy Food safety China East Asia

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