Are you eating yourself ugly?

Carbs. To some it’s another brick in the food pyramid, to others it’s a terrifying, almost profane word. It’s also been the focus of recent study from the University of Montpellier in France, where some researchers found a link between eating “refined carbohydrates” and facial attractiveness.

Refined carbs are ones that have had their nutritional value stripped away by their manufacturing process. Sometimes dubbed “bad carbs”, these can be found in foods like white bread and crisps. Thought to contribute to obesity and type II diabetes, this is contrasted against the “good carbs” found in unprocessed fruit, vegetables and grains.

In the study, participants were split up and given breakfasts with and without refined carbs and then had their photos taken two hours later so that volunteers could rate them on their looks. Based on the volunteers’ feedback, the researchers found that consuming a breakfast lead to lower attractiveness in both men and women.

The participants also filled out questionnaires about the dietary habits, and this showed consumption of refined carbs over time to also be linked lower attractiveness. In contrast, consuming high-energy foods at breakfast or an afternoon snack was shown to be linked to higher ratings of attractiveness. The results also held up when factoring in other things that can affect attractiveness like age, smoker status and facial hair.

However, this study was limited to say the least. Facial attractiveness was only rated by heterosexual members of the opposite sex, and only participants with “four grandparents of European origin” were used. There were some differences between the sexes: for men snacking in the afternoon, high-energy intake was linked to lower attractiveness, and refined carbs to higher attractiveness.

Further research and diversifying the samples of participants would be needed to better understand how diet affect social traits like facial attractiveness, if at all. But for now the researchers conclude that it “seems to be impacted by immediate and chronic refined carbohydrate consumption.”

by Louis Davies @louis.on.air

Source:

Amandine Visine, Durand, V., Guillou, L., Raymond, M. and Berticat, C. (2024). Chronic and immediate refined carbohydrate consumption and facial attractiveness. PLOS ONE, 19(3), pp.e0298984–e0298984. doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0298984.

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