SIRC Media Watch Archive
Comment and Opinion – July 2003

One for the birds. Zebra finches – cute little birds with orange/red beaks that too often sadly end up in the cages of their human 'fanciers' or, it seems, Glasgow laboratories – are featuring prominently in the diet and nutrition news. Last month they were the basis for a rather silly story suggesting that eating carrots can make men more attractive to women. (See Carrots are top for the food of love; Boffin claims root vegetable is aphrodisiac) In the study conducted by Dr Jonathan Blount, male finches fed on a diet that included carotenoid pigments became more attractive to females. Full story.