![\"\"](\"http:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/images\/blogpics\/CaesarSalad.jpg\" "\\"salad\\"")
Married men will eat their peas to keep the peace, but many aren’t happy about it, and may even binge on unhealthy foods away from home.<\/p>\n
“The key to married men adopting a healthier diet is for couples to discuss and negotiate the new, healthier menu changes as a team<\/strong>,” said Derek Griffith, assistant professor at the University of Michigan School of Public Health.<\/p>\n This seems obvious, but most times it doesn’t happen, according to a new study called “‘She looks out for the meals, period.’ African-American men’s perceptions of how their wives influence their eating behavior and dietary health.”<\/p>\n Researchers conducted focus groups with 83 African-American men. The majority of men said their wives didn’t consult them when helping them to adopt a healthier diet. Even though the healthier diet was often ordered by a physician, the husbands often disliked the food changes, but to avoid conflict, they didn’t object<\/strong>. Men focused more on maintaining a happy home than having a say in what they ate.<\/p>\n In fact, the only examples found of couples negotiating healthy food choices came about to benefit the children in the home, Griffith said.<\/p>\n However, without that communication, those good intentions and healthy diet changes often backfired<\/strong>, the study found. After tasteless ground turkey for the fifth night in a row, some men would head to the all-you-can-eat buffet for “a landslide of food.”<\/p>\n “I think at dinner a lot of men are eating healthier, but they compensate for the dissatisfaction of not eating what they want by making unhealthier choices outside the home,” Griffith said.<\/p>\n Physicians can help by recognizing that wives play a central role in what men eat at home, Griffith said.<\/p>\n “Doctors could suggest that men have a tactful conversation with their wives in a way that ensures the husbands aren’t sleeping on the couch that night,” Griffith said.<\/p>\n Julie Ober Allen of the U-M School of Public Health and Henry Gaines of Black Men for Social Change are co-authors.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From the University of Michigan press release: Married men will eat their peas to keep the peace, but many aren’t happy about it, and may even binge on unhealthy foods… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,10,7],"tags":[13,287,208,207],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3100"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3100"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3101,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3100\/revisions\/3101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}