irritable and quick to anger

A study recently published by the Journal of Consumer Research claims that people who are dieting are more likely to lose their temper and self control than those people who are not. Professor David Gal from Northwestern University and Professor Wendy Liu from the University of California who conducted this research did a number of experiments which examined the self control of groups of volunteers.

For example in one particular study they observed that those volunteers who ate an apple as opposed to a chocolate bar were more likely to go and see a film that had revenge and anger as their theme.  The volunteers who had eaten a chocolate bar tended to go for films with a milder theme.

In another experiment it was observed that higher levels of irritation were recorded with those who had chosen the healthy snack when they were asked to comment on an advertising message which appeared to be dictatorial.

The researchers were trying to see whether the simple act of exerting fully conscious self control with regard to eating could end up with higher rates of angry behaviour. They said that their research proved that people on diets were "irritable and quick to anger".

It's pretty obvious that people who have chosen a salad as opposed to a big pizza in a restaurant especially at the beginning of their diet are more likely to be sensitive and potentially unreasonable. You need to be sympathetic and supportive of dieters and try and encourage them to stick to healthy food by ordering it yourself. don't go and order a pizza when your friends are trying to lose weight by ordering a salad!

Before you try and use this evidence as a reason for not going on a diet just remember that overweight and obese people are more likely to feel uncomfortable and insecure which can manifest itself in unreasonable behaviour. There's nothing like looking good and feeling good to put you in a good mood so focus on this rather than getting irritated about the fact that you're eating healthy.