Feeling angry? Blame the diet

London: People who diet are more likely to be irritable and angry than those who eat what they like.The effort involved in exerting self-control over food can lead to aggressive behaviour towards other people, a study has found.

Those on diets are more likely to prefer anger-themed movies, the a website reported citing the study: The grapes of wrath: The angry effects of exerting self-control. They were also interested in looking at angry facial expressions, and expressed more irritation at a message that used controlling language to convince them to change their exercise habits, according to the study. David Gal of Northwestern University and Wendy Liu of the University of California, said: "We set out to examine whether exerting self-control can indeed lead to a wide range of angry behaviours and preferences subsequently, even in situations where such behaviours are quite subtle." "Research has shown that exerting self-control makes people more likely to behave aggressively toward others and people on diets are known to be irritable and quick to anger," said Gal. Researchers found that people who chose an apple instead of a chocolate bar were more likely to choose movies with anger and revenge themes. IANS