If you were told you had just one meal left to eat, what would you choose? Experts say your choice could reveal a lot about your personality.
For people on death row, thinking about what to have as a last meal isn’t hypothetical. In the U.S., inmates facing execution can sometimes request a final meal. However, exactly what they are allowed to have depends on the state and its rules.
Throughout the years, rules have changed several times. For example, in 2011, Lawrence Brewer ordered a huge meal for his last one, but when it was time, he said he wasn’t hungry.
But psychologists say the food someone chooses could reveal more about them than you might think.
Researchers Brian Wansink, Kevin Kniffin, and Mitsuru Shimizu from Cornell University looked at the final meal requests of 247 people executed in the United States between 2002 and 2006.
Their idea was simple: by studying what people chose to eat in their final moments, they could learn more about our deepest food cravings and desires.
The study, published in the academic journal Appetite, found that the average last meal was packed with calories — around 2,756 calories on average
Your death row meal choice can reveal telling details about your life and personality
The meals also contained about 2.5 times the recommended daily servings of protein and fat. Unsurprisingly, meat, fried foods, desserts and soft drinks were among the most common choices.
Fruits and vegetables, on the other hand, were requested far less often. Yogurt, tofu and explicitly vegetarian meals didn’t appear as a single last-meal choice in the study.
It’s nothing new that many of us turn to foods we associate with comfort, childhood, or happier memories. Familiar favorites or brands can bring back powerful feelings, especially during times of extreme stress.
One inmate’s last words, as reported by Psychology Today, were, for example: “I did not get my Spaghetti-O’s, I got spaghetti! I want the press to know this.”
Moreover, one type of food also comes up again and again. Foods such as fried chicken, burgers, milkshakes, and ice cream are among the ones most often requested as final meals.
According to food psychologist Professor Jane Ogden, these choices may have a deeper reason.
“Foods are embedded with complex meanings often related to our childhoods,” she told UNILAD.
Factors that could decide what the last meal request will be
Ogden further explained that food can be connected to important moments in our lives; everything from falling in love and celebrations to grief and loss. That means the smell, taste or sight of a familiar meal can suddenly take someone back to another time in their life.
Researchers have also found that people who are confronted with uncertainty or reminders of death may be more likely to choose calorie-rich comfort foods.
So, if you had to choose your own final meal, what would be on the plate?
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