July 2011/Prepared Foods -- An article appearing in the May 24 edition of Live Science reveals a person’s voting preferences appear to reflect their food preferences. The study by Hunch.com, a site which makes recommendations on consumer preferences, ranging from which car to drive to which college to attend, finds liberals prefer thin-crust pizza, while conservatives opt for deep-dish versions of the Italian pie.

While liberals tend to go for such pastas as gnocchi and fusilli and a glass of wine with dinner, Hunch.com notes conservatives are apt to choose McDonald’s French fries and a can of soda with their meal. The site utilized 80 million answers to questions it asked its 700,000 members to “predict particular demographics, personality and other characteristics based on their food choices.” That data was then compared against the political views the participants noted; 43% said they tended to support liberal politicians, 17% conservative politicians and 23% middle-of-the-road.

Liberals are 28% more likely than conservatives to eat fresh fruit daily. Some 10% of liberals surveyed indicated they are vegetarians, compared with 3% of conservatives. The majority of both liberals and conservatives agreed there is a significant difference between organic and processed food.

Although there appears to be a correlation between views and food choices, the study does not say that one influences the other, as demographics could also play a role. pf