Researchers in Australia have come up with some groundbreaking news – that men and women may need different diets. To ensure a healthy lifespan, reproductive success and fitness, scientists at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and the University of Sydney have found that gender can play a big role in the type of food we should be eating.

Carbs for men, protein for women
Using Australian black field crickets as the subject, the team have determined which protein to carbohydrate ratio to adopt at which point in the male and female lifecycle. According to the findings, a carbohydrate-rich diet is best for longevity in both males and females, however for reproductive success the balance needs to change somewhat. For males, a carbohydrate to protein ratio of eight to one is the best choice to achieve optimum reproductive health, whereas females need a ratio of one to one.

Unhealthy compromise
The researchers also found that we are naturally prone to make compromises in our diet, as few of the crickets actually opted for the ratio that suited them best. Both sexes tended to choose an « intermediate » diet in between the two.

The study highlights that more attention needs to paid to an individual's health, taking into account their gender and which stage they are at in their life. Compromising can be very costly for both sexes and it was found in the study that females had a 30% reduction in egg production when they didn't eat a high-protein diet.

This brings into question the active male's role in the reproductive process, which the scientists describe as « trivial » compared to the taxing efforts a woman's body has to go through. In the cricket world, most of the male's work is in sitting up all night calling for a mate, thus the need for more carbohydrates to keep them awake longer.

In humans, this difference in energy expenditure is even more pronounced between the sexes.

The head biologist at UNSW, Dr Alexei Maklakov, said:
"Humans are even more fundamentally different between males and females than crickets are. In human reproduction the men's role is relatively trivial [while] for women bringing a baby safely to term requires tremendous amounts of energy and diet is very important.

What men and women need to eat might be more dramatically different than we had realised. However men and women eat very similar diets and our results suggest our tastes and food preferences could be a shared compromise as they are in crickets."