Menspeak: Women who eat less are truly sexy

Be it bootylicious singer Beyonce Knowles, talk show queen Oprah Winfrey or the sexy Janet Jackson, every celebrity worth her salt (or in this case, should we say carbs?!), has been through hell and beyond in the form of a diet. While all of them may say that the main aim is to be fighting fit, nobody can take away from the fact that the main motivating factor when it comes to weight loss is to draw wolf whistles from the opposite sex.
The proof of the pudding lies in a recent study conducted at the McMaster University in Ontario. The study revealed that when women sat with men, they ate rabbit food or other meals of significantly lower calorific value than in all-women groups. The more number of men dining with a woman, the less she ate, it said. It also went on to add that young women use their food to send signals to men and pick meals to enhance their desirability to the opposite sex.
Talking about this, nutritionist Savita Dhave says, “It’s a very dangerous trend these days as an increasing number of women eat extremely miniscule quantities of food when they are entertaining people of the opposite sex. The main side effect is that while women do it in a bid to project a higher image of themselves, it results in binge eating later on. This can also lead to eating disorders like bulimia and anorexia. In fact, it is probably one of the main causes.”
While the study showed that men didn’t really watch what they scarfed down, the women felt that they were being judged by what was on their plate. Says Aahana Desai, model co-coordinator, “A salad looks so much more aesthetic than a steak or a roast. Apart from the fact that it looks really pretty, one requires sophistication to carry off eating a salad. You need to know which salad fork you should use for what, lest you end up butchering it with a steak knife! This apart, there is this theory that men are turned off by women digging into meat or mounds of food. So, why take the risk?”
However, marketing executive Lekhamithra Shanmugam thinks otherwise. Says she, “I have been there and done that. The whole concept of eating meagre portions just to impress a guy is ridiculous. It definitely comes across as fake. Only people who have no self confidence would do something like that. I eat to satisfy my cravings, not to impress other people. That being said, I would definitely watch how I eat, but not what I eat.”
While women seem to have divided views on the subject, men have a very straightforward take on the salad versus steak debate. For designer Vivek Karunkaran, a woman who has a healthy appetite definitely scores over the rest. “I have many women friends who eat well and I love their company. There is absolutely no truth in the myth that people judge you based on what you eat. A confident woman will eat whatever she wants and will work it off if she chooses to. At the end of the day, you eat to satisfy your tummy and not the perception or in this case, misconceived notion of others,” he says in conclusion.
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