Backing a losing team could be bad for your health

Watching your favourite sports team lose games can have a bad effect on more than just your morale, it can actually affect your health too!

Game day is probably seen as the worst for us, at least when it comes to what we're eating. Pizza, chili, hot wings, chips & dip, and certainly beer all make their way onto the menu for the day and we probably don't bother with holding back on how much we eat. However, a new study has shown the day after the big game might mean an even worse menu for you, if you endure the agony of watching your team suffer a defeat.

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The researchers asked over 700 NFL fans to keep a record of what foods they ate on game day and on the two days following that. This covered 475 games, involving 30 different teams. The results showed that those fans that watched their team lose ended up making poor food choices the day after — eating foods higher in both fat and calorie content — but fans that cheered their team to victory ate healthier — choosing foods lower in both fat and calorie content. Also, the more devoted the fan, the greater the effect (even higher fat and calories after a loss or even lower after a win).

They didn't just leave it at that, though, they also studied French football (read: soccer) fans, and found similar results.

The reason for this is that fans typically tie their own self-worth to the success and failures of the team they support.

There's a way around this, though, the researchers point out. This is where it gets a little 'Stuart Smalley' (if you don't recall this beloved Al Franken SNL character, click here), but if fans of the losing team wrote down the things that are most important to them in life (other than their team winning), it actually counteracted the effect.

"Even if you are rooting for a perennial loser, there is a solution if you are concerned about healthy eating," the researchers said, according to The Telegraph. "After a defeat, write down what is really important to you in life. In our studies, this simple technique, called 'self affirmation,' completely eliminated the effects of defeats."

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People will always have their favourite sports team that they root for, regardless of whether or not their team is in first place or last, and we always seem to feel some need to back the underdog. However, as this study shows, you can back whomever you want and still come out on top, as long as you don't judge yourself by their successes or failures.

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