Loneliness: Eating Alone Can Increase Your Risk of Obesity and Death

Human beings are social creatures. So the fact that numerous studies have shown a link between loneliness and mental/health problems should not surprise you.
And now another study has added weight to this knowledge.

Conducted by a team of researchers in the Ilsan Hospital of the Dongguk University in Seoul, South Korea, the study postulated that eating alone puts adults at a high risk of developing metabolic syndrome, which is a term used to describe a group of conditions like high blood pressure, cholesterol, and diabetes.

The team studied 7,725 adults who often ate alone and found that (after adjusting for biases like cigarette smoking, drinking alcohol, age, occupation, and exercise) men who eat alone are at a significantly high risk of developing health problems.

In fact with a 45% increased risk of obesity and 64% increased risk of metabolic syndrome, men are twice more likely to fall ill than women who eat alone twice a day (who clocked in at only 29% increased risk).

Published in the journal called Obesity Research and Clinical Practice, this study is now part of the increasing number of studies that have linked loneliness and mental disorders and health problems.