Don’t go all ‘hungry’ on a date, study advises
NEW YORK — We’re hurrying to cross the street and he reaches for my hand as the traffic light above turns from red to green. It’s a sweet gesture, but I leave him hanging. Maybe it’s because I’m shy. Maybe it’s because it’s not really a date and we’re just hanging out.
Or maybe it’s because I’m ‘hangry.’ (Yes, that’s hungry + angry.)
In a new study published in the journal Appetite, researchers found that women, particularly those who diet, may be more primed for romance if they’re well fed first.
For a first date, it’s standard fare to meet up for just coffee or drinks sans avocado toast. Even if daters do end up at a restaurant, if one person isn’t interested in eating, the other might shy away from pigging out in front of a stranger.
“When you’re hungry, you’re thinking about food,” communications specialist Alisha Golden says. “I might take out my hungriness on him.”
The subjects in the study were given chocolate shakes. According to the researcher’s data, “historical dieters,” such as product officer Chaya Cooper, 46, could respond even more positively to being wined and dined. She describes the warm and fuzzy feeling of having enjoyed a planned-out meal that turned into something more.
On the other hand, she also had a date that went quickly from good to bad: The man she was with said he’d already had his one meal of the day, so he wouldn’t be eating.
Cooper says she would have been fine paying for her own food or just grabbing a slice of pizza. Instead, she wrote the guy off entirely.
So daters, make sure you get yourselves a happy meal. You want those slightly nervous knots in our stomach to come from excitement, not hunger pains.
Perhaps prime rib does prime us for love, if the appetite to connect is there in the first place.