Any research out there that supports a theory that calm people are thinner? page

[Goldensparrow]

I like observing people and one of the things I've observed recently is it seems to me that those people who never get upset or angry about anything are much much thinner than those that do. Now I'm sure someone could say well stress causes people to overeat, but I would think there would be more to it than that. I've scoured the internet for any studies that have been done on this and can't really find much. Thoughts? Thanks!

[Lewis]

I don't know of anything.

People in the Middle Ages and Renaissance seem to have believed precisely the opposite:

Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look;
He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.

SCENE II. A public place.

Notice also the Reeve in The Canterbury Tales, who is "a sclendre colerik man", is ill-tempered and vengeful. He makes sure to pay the Miller out for his story.

The best of the four "complexions" (Sanguine, Choleric, Melancholic, Phlegmatic) in this view was the Sanguine Complexion, yet sanguine men and women are plump -- although perhaps the phlegmatics are the fatties.

The medievals seem to have seen thin people as likely full of fretting, nervous energy. I guess what one makes of such pop-psychology is another matter. There may be something in a picture of the soul that lasted for so long even if the medieval conceptions are quite different from ours and don't "map onto" any current conceptions.


I'm inclined to say, putting an Ancestral Health Movement hat on, that I think that someone who is properly nourished -- getting the right nutrients in the right amounts, not undergoing wide blood-sugar fluctuations, and so on -- is more likely to be calm. I guess such a person would be more likely to be at the weight that's physiologically normal for them. There must be so much else that plays into the picture, though. For example, it's been said that people whose jaw grows fully, so that their teeth fit properly -- rare in our society, owing to poor nutrition -- tend to be more relaxed. It could well matter at some level simply having plenty of room for your tongue -- not to mention that misaligned bones in the face can put pressure on nerves.

Then, of course, one's life experience is going to affect one's emotional tone. And there's the pre-natal environment ...

Human beings are so complex, I think it would be a difficult to sort out what does or doesn't have an effect on their degree of calmness.

[Scott F]

Looks like there is. It's a part of this series The Skinny on Obesity (Ep. 1): An Epidemic for Every Body - YouTube

this is the part talks about stress

[honeybuns]

My sister is a high energy, always revved person. I have chosen to slow down and unstress my life. She is perpetually thin while I am not.
Given that example, I would have to say it is the reverse of what you posted.