The time for New Year's resolutions is gone, but if you're looking for a little motivation in mid-March to clean up your diet, well, look no further.
A new study suggests that consuming too many refined carbs — like white bread, white rice and pastries — may make you less attractive.
The Western diet contains a lot of refined carbohydrates, such as white flour, sucrose, and ingredients found in many packaged snacks. The processing of refined carbohydrates means that foods are deprived of much of their nutritional value, and previous studies have shown that increased carbohydrate intake can adversely affect health, such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.
Previous evidence suggests that consuming high amounts of refined carbohydrates may also affect non-medical traits, such as a person's attractiveness. To further this, researchers from the University of Montpellier in France conducted a study of 104 heterosexual male and female adults in France.
The researchers gave some participants a high-glycemic breakfast — a breakfast containing refined carbohydrates known to raise blood sugar levels — while others ate a low-glycemic breakfast. Participants also completed a questionnaire to assess their typical intake of refined carbohydrates.
Other heterosexual volunteers were asked to rate the facial attractiveness of heterosexual participants, which were taken two hours after breakfast was served. To reduce cultural heterogeneity, the study included only participants and volunteers with four grandparents of European ancestry.
Statistical analysis showed that both men and women who ate a high-glycemic breakfast had lower facial attractiveness scores. Long-term consumption of refined carbohydrates, such as breakfast and snacks, is also associated with lower attractiveness ratings, although comparatively speaking, consumption of high-energy foods at these times is associated with higher ratings.
The researchers also noted some gender differences: for men, the attractiveness score of eating high-energy snacks in the afternoon was lower, while the attractiveness score of high-glycemic snacks was higher.
The researchers said that after statistically accounting for other factors that may affect attractiveness, all the results were correct, such as chronological age, perceived age, body mass index, smoking habits and facial hair.
Overall, independent of other factors, acute and chronic consumption of refined carbohydrates or high-glycemic foods was associated with lower attractiveness ratings. The findings were published Thursday in the open access journal PLoS Synthesis.
The authors note that further research, including larger, more diverse sample sizes, is needed to deepen the understanding of how refined carbohydrates are linked to attractiveness and other social traits.
This type of study cannot prove that differences in carbohydrate intake lead to differences in the attractiveness ratings seen, and further, larger studies are needed to confirm this finding. ”
Facial attractiveness is an important factor in social interactions, and it appears to be influenced by both immediate and long-term intake of refined carbohydrates in both men and women. ”
In 2020, a study published in the journal Evolutionary Psychology by the University of Montpellier showed that diets rich in refined carbohydrates appeared to affect "non-medical characteristics," such as facial attractiveness.
The authors concluded that increased intake of refined carbohydrates was "well known to be harmful to health" and that non-medical features "also significantly affected healthy women and men."
Refined carbohydrate intake does not appear to be associated with facial attractiveness, which has important social implications. Further research is needed to investigate whether other non-medical characteristics, but of non-negligible social importance, are also affected. ”