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.
And there are statistics too. They say that the average attention span is down from 12 seconds in the year 2000 to eight seconds now. That is less than the nine-second attention span of your average goldfish. You might have seen those stats in Time magazine, the Telegraph, the Guardian, USA Today, the New York Times or the National Post.