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What Your Smartphone Says About Your Waistline

If you're sipping your lunch, you probably have an iPhone. If you're enjoying pizza from Little Caesars, you're probably on Android.
Image: smartphone and diet
Your choice when it comes to operating systems says a lot about you, including what you like to eat, according to data provided to CNBC by NPD Group's Checkout Tracking.Robert F. Bukaty/Matthew Mead / AP
/ Source: CNBC.com

If you're sipping your lunch, you probably have an iPhone. If you're enjoying pizza from Little Caesars, you're probably on Android.

Consumer choices have always been about picking this or that, and the current either/or decision is between smartphone operating systems. Your choice when it comes to operating systems says a lot about you, including what you like to eat, according to data provided to CNBC by NPD Group's Checkout Tracking.

IPhone users were much more likely to go for a liquid lunch, with soup and smoothies taking the top spots for iOS choices. Soup had an iPhone-to-Android index of 151, meaning that purchasers were 51 percent more likely to be iPhone users. An index of 100 would be equality between the operating systems.

Android users leaned more toward heavy, hearty foods like roast beef and fried chicken. The Android-to-iPhone index for cheeseburgers was 113 and roast beef sandwiches 119.

Image: smartphone and diet
Your choice when it comes to operating systems says a lot about you, including what you like to eat, according to data provided to CNBC by NPD Group's Checkout Tracking.Robert F. Bukaty/Matthew Mead / AP

"If you were to generalize, you do tend to find the iOS is a little more Target while Android is more Wal-Mart," said Andy Mantis, executive vice president of the group, pronouncing Target the pseudo-fancy way. iPhone users had a median income of $85,000 in 2014, versus Android users' $61,000, according to a report from Web analytics firm comScore.

As for fast food, establishments might elicit loyalty, but everyone loves fried chicken. The establishment with the highest iPhone-to-Android index (169) was Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers, a chain based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Bojangles Chicken 'n Biscuits was at the opposite end, with an Android-to-iPhone index of 129.

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IPhone users tend to be more herd-like, at least when it comes to fast food. There are 10 establishments with indexes over 125 in favor of iPhones, while only four could say the same for Android users. Assuming each person uses just one type of phone to upload their receipts, this could mean that iPhone users frequent the same slightly pricier spots more often than Android users. Alternatively, everyone could be going to the places Android users like but there are additional establishments where iPhone users go but Android users don't.

Checkout Tracking gathers its data from the source: Consumers uploading their receipts into the system in exchange for rewards like Amazon gift cards. By applying OCR and machine learning, the system strips the important information from the receipt and collates for a relatively accurate sample of American consumer behaviors. Better than an online survey, for example.

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With 50,000 users scattered around the country, Checkout Tracking analysis offers a fairly representative national sample of consumers, according to Mantis, though the user base leans younger and more female than the population. That makes sense if you consider it's using mobile devices to upload receipts.