
The craving to order a pizza or any other kind of popular takeaway meal is at its peak at 7pm and 2am around the world, according to new research based on a global study of internet traffic. Academics from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland examined patterns of food searches online across India, UK, US, Canada and Australia and discovered “double-peaks, occurring every day at 19.00 and 02.00”. The research, published in the Royal Society journal 'Open Science', looks at how ancient human patterns of hunger and foraging have moved into the internet era, using Google searches for take-away curries, Chinese meals and pizzas. The study, by Nicolas Scrutton Alvarado and Tyler Stevenson, indicates a new so-called hunting and Googling trend among humans. “Overall, we present novel human appetitive behaviour for information seeking of food resources and propose that internet-based search patterns reflect a biological rhythm of motivation for energy balance,” the researchers said. “We propose that the major factor that contributes to the bimodal evening peak is age-dependent (e.g. adolescent, early adulthood versus midlife and mature adulthood) and a minor role for human chronotypes (e.g. late versus early),” they note.