Being A Fan Of A Bad Football Team Will Make You Fat

A new study has found that saturated fat consumption in football fans goes up 16 percent after a defeat and actually goes down nine perfect after a win. Although it is shocking to learn there is saturated fat in Maker's Mark, mostly the study confirms what we already know: football fans are big, dumb animals unable to cope with feelings.

Two scientists in France studied the eating habits of football fans in cities across the U.S., paying particular attention to the differences in behavior after wins and losses.

It wasn't just about eating saturated fats, either. Overall calorie consumption went up by 10 percent after losses, and down by 5 percent after wins.

Chandon says the connection between eating and sports outcomes was off the charts in the cities where following the local football team was tantamount to a religion.

"When we look at the behavior of people living in cities where football is really important — places like Green Bay, Philadelphia or Pittsburgh, then the performance of the team has an even greater impact on what they eat," Chandon says.

They also found that sports defeats, especially football defeats, increased the person's risk for a heart attack. Although it sounds like an unknowable conundrum like the chicken or the egg—does the depression of losing fandom make us fat, or do we seek out losing fandom because we are fat and depressed?—what this study suggests is that it's both.

Photo credit: Getty

Diet Of Defeat: Why Football Fans Mourn With High-Fat Food [NPR]