Hopefully France does not lose Monday against Nigeria if we want to avoid rushing for crisps, pizzas and other nutritional celebrations. We know it, a faltering ego or a zero morale and we take refuge in junk food. Yann Cornil and Pierre Chandon, two researchers from the marketing department of Insead (the European Institute of Business Administration) wanted to see more clearly about the eating behavior of sports fans, after a defeat and after a victory.
To do this, they were first interested in viewers of the Super Bowl (American football), a true religion in the United States. Fans had to write down everything they ate on a match Sunday, then Monday and Tuesday.
16% more saturated fat
And here is the result: those whose favorite team had lost, ingested the next day 16% saturated fat and 10% more calories than usual, while the winners ate lighter (9% saturated fat and 5% % less calories). In some towns with staunch supporters, the consumption of saturated fats even increased by 28% in case of defeat and decreased by 16% in case of victory.
Relativize defeat
Then other amateurs watched an extract of one of the following three matches: the France-Italy final of Euro 2000 (France had won); the same version world Cup 2006 (France lost); or a match between two Belgian teams. Half of the participants were also asked to list the important values in their life, while the others were asked to name the main elements … of a chair.
Viewing photos of the same foods as in the previous experience, everyone had to indicate their degree of attraction to the foods in question. The participants who (re) saw the defeat of the Blues, unsurprisingly, opted for crisps and candies, unless … they had first listed the values that governed their lives. Reassuring proof that even for a supporter, there are things more important than football. The main thing to recover from a defeat … is to put things into perspective!
