Monitoring your diet has long been suggested for those who want to watch their weight. Now a study suggests that what you consume can affect your perceived attractiveness beyond that. A recent study published in PLOS One indicates that eating refined carbs can negatively impact facial attractiveness. We’re not sure this is quite enough to keep us from pizza, but we’re curious about what the study says.
The study
The consumption of refined carbs has increased in the past few decades as has the negative health impacts that can come with overconsumption like hyperglycemia and hyperinsulinemia, the study notes. It goes on to suggest that this may impact non-medical traits such as facial attractiveness. “To explore this issue, the relationship between facial attractiveness and immediate and chronic refined carbs…was studied for 104 French subjects.”
The findings
Facial attractiveness is, of course, subjective. However, for the sake of this study, it was assessed by opposite-sex raters based on photos taken two hours after either a meal high in refined carbs or a low glycemic meal. For both men and women, the study found that eating a high-glycemic breakfast was linked to lower facial attractiveness scores. Additionally, continued consumption of refined carbs throughout the day was also associated with lower attractiveness ratings.
To sum it up—the study concluded facial attractiveness seems to be impacted by both immediate and chronic refined carbohydrate consumption. The study notes that “Further studies are needed to investigate how diet effects are mediated and which other social traits could be affected by refined carbohydrate consumption.”
“The significance of our findings lies in highlighting the potential influence of dietary choices not only on health but also on non-medical traits having particular social importance, such as facial attractiveness,” senior author Claire Berticat, PhD told United Press International. “These results underscore the broader societal implications of dietary habits.”
