The craving to order a pizza or any other kind of popular takeaway meal is at its peak at 7pm and 2am around the world, according to new research based on a global study of internet traffic in countries like India, UK and the US.
Academics from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland examined patterns of food searches online across India, UK, US, Canada and Australia and discovered double-peaks, occurring every day at 19.00 and 02.00.
The research conducted by Nicolas Scrutton Alvarado and Tyler Stevenson was published today in the Royal Society journal Open Science'.
It looks at how ancient human patterns of hunger and foraging have moved into the internet era, using Google searches for take-away curries, Chinese meals and pizzas.
Overall, we present novel human appetitive behaviour for information seeking of food resources and propose that Internet-based search patterns reflect a biological rhythm of motivation for energy balance, the researchers said.
As part of the study, the biologists downloaded five years' worth of data on general takeaway-related searches, such as pizza delivery or Chinese delivery, as well as more specific fast food delivery companies, such as Swiggy and Zomato in India, Just Eat in the UK, and Panda Express in the US and Canada.
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Besides some limited phase peaks around festivals like Diwali or Christmas, there was a general consistent rhythm of people wanting to find food online at about 7pm.
The findings show a new way of studying "foraging behaviour" in humans and understanding human motivations about seeking food.
We propose that the major factor that contributes to the bimodal evening peak is age-dependent (e.g. adolescent, early adulthood versus midlife and mature adulthood) and a minor role for human chronotypes (e.g. late versus early), they note.
The results indicate that the two evening peaks could be the result of biology. The 2am takeaway craving may either reflect a host of hungry students, or more probably people who tend to be night owls and stay up late.
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