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What you eat for breakfast might change how attractive you appear to others.
Swap your morning donut for eggs, and you might actually look sexier. That’s the finding from researchers at the University of Montpellier in France, who showed a statistical link between the amount of carbohydrates people eat and how attractive their faces are rated by heterosexual members of the opposite sex.
In short: people who eat more refined carbohydrates for breakfast may be perceived as less attractive. Refined carbohydrates are foods that lose much of their nutritional value during processing. Examples include white bread, bagels, muffins, pastries, cookies, cakes, certain cereals, waffles, pancakes, pretzels, sugar, and most packaged snacks.
What the Researchers Discovered
Lead author Amandine Vizin said, “Chronic consumption of refined carbohydrates seems to influence facial attractiveness, which is an important factor in social interaction.”
The study involved 104 adult men and women. First, participants filled out a questionnaire about how many refined carbohydrates they typically consume.
During the experiment, some volunteers ate breakfasts with a high glycemic index (foods that spike blood sugar), while others were given low–glycemic-index breakfasts.
Afterward, volunteers who had not eaten that morning evaluated participants’ appearance. They were shown photographs of people of the opposite sex taken two hours after breakfast.
Participants who ate high–glycemic-index breakfasts were rated as less attractive. That effect appeared in both men and women, according to reporting in The Independent.
The team also found that chronic consumption of refined carbohydrates at breakfast and in snacks was associated with lower external attractiveness, regardless of body mass index (BMI) and age.
By contrast, breakfasts featuring nutrient-dense, lower–glycemic-index foods were linked to higher attractiveness ratings. Examples of those foods include fruit, yogurt, nuts, and eggs.
The researchers said more work with larger, more diverse samples is needed to understand how refined carbohydrates might relate not only to attractiveness but also to other social traits.
The results of the study were published in the journal PLOS One.
