Working long hours worse for women than men
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-07-13 06:53
Working long hours has a greater negative impact on
women than men because it makes them more likely to smoke, drink coffee and eat
unhealthy food.
Morning
commuters on the city sidewalks of New York, December 20, 2005. Working
long hours has a greater negative impact on women than men because it
makes them more likely to smoke, drink coffee and eat unhealthy
food. [Reuters] |
Both sexes consume less alcohol if they spend more time working, researchers
said on Wednesday, but toiling extra hours makes women crave unhealthy snacks.
"Women who work long hours eat more high-fat and high-sugar snacks, exercise
less, drink more caffeine and, if smokers, smoke more than their male
colleagues," said Dr. Daryl O'Connor, a researcher at Britain's Leeds
University.
"For men, working longer hours has no negative impact on exercise, caffeine
intake or smoking," O'Connor said in a statement released by the Economic and
Social Research Council, which funded his study.
O'Connor's team of scientists were studying the impact of stress on eating
habits. They looked at what causes stress at home and at work and how people
react to it.
The results show that one or more stressful events such as making a
presentation, a meeting with the boss or missing a deadline was linked to eating
more between-meal snacks and fewer or smaller portions of fruits and vegetables.
"Stress disrupts people's normal eating habits," he said.
The people who were most vulnerable were so-called emotional eaters.
"These individuals have higher levels of vulnerability and tend to turn to
food as an escape from self-awareness," O'Connor said.
"When they feel anxious or emotionally aroused or negative about themselves,
they try to avoid these negative feelings by turning their attention to food."
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