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Fans can unintentionally destroy their health while watching games. Can Gen Z end unhealthy habits at tailgates and get-togethers?
In a word
- The Double-Edged Sword of Fandom: Being a die-hard sports fan builds belonging, enhances happiness and builds community, but it can quietly harm physical health.
- Game Day Habits Matter: From beer-soaked tailgates to couch-locked viewing parties, fans tend to eat and drink more unhealthy foods, especially after their teams lose.
- Culture and identity collide: Each fan base develops its own “health culture” – whether it’s Buffalo wings, New Orleans fried treats or Cincinnati chili dogs – where eating like a “real fan” becomes part of the identity.
- Emotional eating is real: Research shows that fans often face anxiety, disappointment, or rivalry stress over food and alcohol, linking fandom to emotional and binge-eating behaviors.
- The next piece: As Gen Z demands healthier, values-aligned brands, sports teams may need to rethink how they nurture and engage their fans, without losing what makes fandom fun.
Being from Buffalo means being able to eat some of the best wings in the world. That means scraping snow and ice off your car on frosty mornings. And that means making a lifelong vow to the city’s NFL franchise, the Bills – for better or for worse, until death do us part.
When I grew up in New York’s second-largest city, my community was united by loyalty to a football team that always found new ways to break our hearts. And yet, at the start of every NFL season, we always found reasons to be hopeful – we couldn’t help it.
Coming from this football crazy culture, I have often wondered about the psychology of fandom. This ultimately led me to pursue a Ph.D. in the behavior of sports consumers. As a doctoral student, one question particularly interested me: is fandom good for us?
I found a huge body of research on the psychological and social effects of fandom, and it certainly made being devoted to a team look good. Fandom strengthens belonging, helps adults make friends, increases happiness, and even provides protection against traumatic life events.
So, fandom is great, right?
As the famous football commentator Lee Corso would say: “Not so fast, my friend. »
Although fandom seems to be a boon to our mental health, surprisingly little research has been done on the relationship between fandom and physical health.
So I decided to conduct a series of studies – mainly with people living in Western countries – on this subject. I have discovered that being a sports fan can have some downsides to physical health, especially among the most committed fans.
Reach for the nachos
Exercising is healthy. But looking at them? Not so much.
Tailgating culture revolves around alcohol. Research shows that college sports fans drink significantly more than non-fans, are more likely to do something they later regretted, and are more likely to drive drunk. Meanwhile, watch parties encourage sitting still for hours and mindless snacking. And of course, fandom goes hand in hand with heavily processed foods like wings, nachos, pizza, and hot dogs.
One fan told me that when he watches games, his relationship with food is “almost Pavlovian”; he craves “decadent” foods the same way he craves popcorn at the movies.
Inside the stadium, healthy options are traditionally scarce and overpriced. A Sports Illustrated writer joked in 1966 that fans left stadiums and arenas with “the same body chemistry as a jelly donut.”
Since then, little seems to have changed. A Gen Z fan I recently interviewed complained, “You might find a salad with a piece of plain lettuce and a quarter of a tomato. »
Eating anxiety and pain
The relationship between fandom and physical health isn’t just about drinking beer, sitting for hours, or gobbling down hot dogs.
A study analyzed grocery store sales. Researchers found that fans consumed more calories – and fewer healthy foods – the day after a loss for their favorite team, a response that researchers linked to stress and disappointment.
My colleagues and I found something similar: Fandom induces what’s called “emotional eating.”
Emotions like anger, sadness, and disappointment lead to stronger cravings. And that relationship is tied to your favorite team’s performance when it matters most. For example, we found that games between rivals and highly contested games produce more pronounced effects. Emotional states generated by the game are also significantly correlated with increased in-stadium beer sales.
High-calorie crops
In another article, my co-authors and I discovered that fans often feel torn between their desire to make healthy choices and their commitment to being “real fans.”
Each fan base develops its own culture. These unwritten rules vary from team to team, and they’re not just about wearing a cheesehead hat or waving a terrible towel. They also include expectations regarding alcohol consumption, diet and lifestyle.
These health-related standards are shaped by a variety of factors, including region culture, team history, and even team sponsorships.
For example, the Cincinnati Bengals partner with Skyline Chili, a regional chain that makes a meat sauce often poured over hot dogs or spaghetti. One Bengals fan I interviewed observed that if you go to a Bengals game, sure, you can eat something else – but a “real fan” eats Skyline.
I have two studies in progress that show how die-hard fans generally align their health behaviors with the health norms of their fan base. It becomes a way to signal their allegiance to the team, improve their standing among other fans, and contribute to what sets the fan base apart in the eyes of its members.
In Buffalo, for example, tailgating often revolves around alcohol – so much so that Bills fans have a reputation for excessive drinking rituals.
And in New Orleans, Saints fans often associate fandom with Louisiana culinary traditions. As one fan explains: “People make a bunch of fried foods or huge pots of gumbo or etouffee, and eat all day long – from the hours before the game to the hours after. »
A new generation of health-conscious fans
The fan experience is shaped by the culture in which it occurs. Teams actively help shape these cultures, and there is a business case for a greater role for teams in changing some of these norms.
Generation Z is remarkably health conscious. They are also less engaged in traditional fandom.
If stadiums and tailgates continue to revolve around beer and nachos, why would a generation sensitive to fitness influencers and “fitspiration” buy in? To reach this market, I believe the sports industry will need to promote its professional sports teams in new ways.
Some teams are already doing this. British football team Liverpool have teamed up with exercise equipment company Peloton. Another club, Manchester City, has partnered with a non-alcoholic beer brand as the official sponsor of its training uniforms.
And several European soccer clubs have even joined the “Healthy Stadia” movement, revamping stadium dining options and encouraging fans to walk or bike to the stadium.
For the record, I don’t think the solution is to replace typical fan foods with smoothies and salads. Alienating core consumers is generally not a good business strategy.
I do, however, think it’s reasonable to suggest that sports teams could add healthier options and carefully evaluate the signals they send through sponsorships.
As one fan I recently interviewed said: “The NFL has done mediocre efforts like Play 60” – a campaign encouraging kids to get at least 60 minutes of physical activity a day – “while making a lot of money from beer, food and, at the time, cigarette advertising. How can sports leagues seriously expect people to be healthier if they encourage behaviors unhealthy?”
Today’s consumers want to support brands that reflect their values. This is especially true for members of Generation Z, many of whom are savvy enough to see through hollow campaigns and are quick to reject hypocrisy. In the long run, I think this type of dissonance – sandwiching a Play 60 ad between ads for Uber Eats and Anheuser-Busch – will prove counterproductive.
Like everyone else, I understand what makes fandom special — and yes, I’ve eaten my share of wings during Bills games. But public health is a pressing concern, and while the sports industry is well-positioned to address this issue, fandom isn’t helping. In fact, my research suggests that it has the opposite effect.
It will be difficult to find the balance I advocate, but the sports industry is full of brilliant problem solvers. In the movie “Moneyball,” Brad Pitt’s character Billy Beane says that sports teams must “adapt or die.” He was referring to the need for baseball teams to incorporate analytics into their decision-making.
Professional sports teams have finally gotten this message. Maybe they’ll get this one too.
Aaron Mansfield, assistant professor of sport management, Merrimack College. He does not work for, consult, own shares in, or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond his academic appointment.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
