Kansas City Blog

​You can tell a lot about a man or woman by his or her sandwich order. And might replace the Zodiac as your predictor of happiness in a potential relationship.

Hellman's and Best Foods sponsored a recent study to try to match lunch selections with personality types. The Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation analyzed the sandwich orders of 2,747 adults -- offering them eight choices and then cross-examining those decisions with the results of comprehensive personality tests.

More surprising than the actual results might be one of the first facts in the announcement: Americans eat an estimated 40 billion sandwiches a year -- approximately 131 sandwiches per person. Forget Match.com, that's 131 chances to connect in the lunch room or a park bench! (For those who still feel they need love or condiment advice -- Hellman's has launched a companion Web site -- Build The Perfect Sandwich.)
  
The Chicago Tribune's Phil Vettel breaks down the study and tries to determine who might be a good fit:

Tuna-sandwich types are better off hanging with other tuna-sandwich types. Seafood salads and BLTs are a slam-dunk love connection. Egg-salad lovers get along with everybody, while ham-and-cheese types, apparently the players of the bread-and-lunch-meat set, "function best without strong romantic entanglements."

This represents the next step to understanding the value of sandwiches. For a long time, society has considered how we relate to sandwiches or how sandwiches relate to the rest of the food on the plate, but never as a method of finding soulmates.

People have always had the sandwich of their dreams; sandwiches in turn have always searched for their perfect chips. Well, at least now we know why sandwiches are usually cut in half -- they're meant to be shared.
 
[Image via Flickr: Soapylovedeb]