Finally women can blame their snacking on evolution

“Women have a much more anarchic approach to food.” You had to laugh at the adjective chosen by the head of a new study into male and female eating habits – one that, incidentally, concluded we find it harder “to stick to diets” than men.

It seemed overly dramatic, at first glance, characteristically Italian, even (Dr Mauro Lombardo is the professor of human nutrition at Italy’s San Raffaele Roma Open University). And although I suspect the good doctor was trying to avoid using the cancellation-worthy word “emotional”, I actually think “anarchic” is accurate.

Women are unruly in their approach to food. Many of us have spent most of our lives rebelling against authority (the people who tell us we can’t eat cake), established order (we must not eat cake) and the ruling power (thin women who don’t even have to think about not eating cake).

Fat lot of good it’s done us. According to the study, and despite our obsession with dieting, women are “more inclined to snack in the afternoon” (34 per cent compared to 27 per cent of men); “eat more frequently” (with 35 per cent eating five times a day, compared to 26 per cent of men); and are lousy at intermittent fasting (only 4.4 per cent of males are hungry when they wake up, compared to twice that number of females).

My favourite factoid from the study, however – published in the journal Frontiers In Nutrition – was that while men tend to prefer “salty and bitter tastes”, women are more inclined to go for “sweet flavours”. No surprise there, you may say, but the explanation is new: this is apparently a legacy from evolution, because while the men were out hunting for meat, the women harvested fruit. So next time your husband scolds you about your sweet tooth, you can just shrug it off with the words: “Evolutionary legacy”.