For all of the moral posturing and social platitudes you hear when people talk about sports, America isn’t Panem. Equating winning and losing at sports with living or dying is one of the most out-of-touch comparisons out there.
But that pit in your stomach you feel after your favorite team loses a close one/is screwed by the refs/gets dump trucked? According to a new study, that’s your stomach coping with the point differential by making you hungry for comfort food.
INSEAD, a French business school, found that people crave fatty and unhealthy food after losses, bumping up saturated fat consumption by 16%.
"After a victory, people eat better," says , a professor of marketing at the business school INSEAD in France. "After a defeat, people eat a lot worse."
On the flip side, winning in fact makes people eat better with saturated fat consumption reduced by 9%. Looking good and playing good are co-dependent.
As of September 20, 2013, here are fans of the NFL’s division leaders feeling good.
NFC East
1-1
NFC North
2-0
NFC South
2-0
NFC West
2-0
AFC East
2-0
2-0
AFC North
1-1
1-1
AFC South
2-0
AFC West (read the fine print)
2-0
2-0
By the looks of the Redskins 0-2 start, expect the Capitol to have to loosen its Beltway.