Indeed, there is no better measure of personal taste than the food one eats. Literally and figuratively. What our presidents eat is a function family heritage, personal preference, physical condition and social obligation. In sum: a president's favorite meal is NOT always what's served in the White House.
The points apply equally to research talks, lectures, and non-technical presentations. 1  The average attention span of an adult is 20 minutes.  Implication: you should ensure that the first 20 minutes of your talk include any material that you want your audience to remember.
In the study, Not Quite the Average: An Empirical Study of Web Use, researchers determined that the average human span in 2013 was only 8 seconds (the average goldfish can pay attention for 9 seconds). As you can tell by the title of the study, researchers tested the human attention span specifically for web browsing.