Perceived effect? It may come down to your health
According to a new study published in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, health is a significantly more important factor than intelligence when selecting leaders. Intelligence remains relevant, but in a recent survey, health prevailed in all contexts of leadership selection.
Approximately 148 people were asked to imagine selecting a leader based on a database of faces created by researchers, according to the study. Four scenarios were considered – choosing a leader for competition between a group, selection a leader for collaboration between groups, picking a person to conservatively exploit current resources, and picking someone to delve into new alternatives.
Candidates’ faces were altered to look more or less intelligent by manipulating the bone structure, and more or less healthy by modifying pigmentation of the skin.
Participants valued leaders with both traits, but health triumphed as the most influential characteristic.
“The findings highlight the importance of fruits and vegetables in obtaining healthier skin,” says Dr. Ashwani Garg, family medicine physician on staff at Advocate Sherman Hospital in Elgin, Ill. “Beautiful skin is made from the inside out. Topical treatment is only helping the skin in one way. What you eat will help your skin be more elastic, radiant and blemish free.”
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration currently recommends four to five servings of fruits and vegetables per day, but Dr. Garg encourages closer to seven in order to maintain healthy skin.
Dairy foods – which sometimes contain hormones of pregnant cows – often worsen acne by promoting inflammation of the body and skin.
“Not only will you look beautiful, but you’ll be healthier, manage your cholesterol and digestion better, and prevent diabetes and cancer,” Dr. Garg says. “If there are no other dietary changes, at least have one big salad, four servings of vegetables and three servings of fruit a day.”
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health enews staff is a group of experienced writers from our Advocate Health Care and Aurora Health Care sites, which also includes freelance or intern writers.
Very interesting study how a great leader is based on looks and health.
I find this a bit disturbing. How can you tell how healthy someone is just by looking at their skin pigmentation or how intelligent someone is by their bone structure? Judge a book by its cover, anyone?
The advice to avoid dairy is irresponsible. I would expect better screening from Advocate.
In our modern American culture, almost the only source of vitamin K2 available is butterfat, since dairy cows are usually fed silage and hay, whereas beef cattle are finished with a diet consisting almost exclusively of grain. So this article advises us to trade the vague possibility of acne for osteoporosis and atherosclerosis from lack of vitamin K2?
K2 is also available through fermented foods such as Natto, kimchee and sauerkraut; however our bodies synthesize K2 in the intestine by the gut bacteria (probiotics). Butterfat is not a health food and the health benefits of K2 in butterfat may be cancelled out by its detriment to the coronary arteries. The problem in the modern western diet is dietary excess of animal products including dairy rather than deficiency. Dairy products increase urinary excretion of calcium due to their acidity and when you combine this effect with the effects of excess salt which also increases urinary calcium excretion, you get more osteoporosis.
Who knew that your health is such an important factor that affects your job? Health is oftentimes overlooked when it comes to our daily job responsibilities.