Here are health reasons to take bae for dinner more often.
Yup, you read right.
According to a new research, men who eat alone at least twice a day are more likely to suffer from high blood pressure, high cholesterol and pre-diabetes as compared to people who eat in the company of others.
What the study showed about eating alone
The researchers compared health data and survey responses from 7,725 adults in South Korea after asking them how often they ate by themselves.
For guys, eating alone was linked to an increased 64% chance of having the above symptoms, 45% becoming obese with unmarried men who eat alone having the highest overall risk that is three times that of the participants who said that they usually dined with someone else.
Ladies, you’re not so safe either.
On the other hand, the research also reviewed women and found that those who ate alone at least twice a day also had an increased 24% chance of suffering from metabolic syndromes which connote the aforementioned health conditions such high blood pressure.
However, Annalijn Conklin, who is an assistant professor of pharmaceutical sciences at the University of British Columbia explained that these differences largely disappeared when adjustments were made to allow for socioeconomic status and lifestyle factors.
She said, "Men who were not married and eating alone had much worse outcomes compared to others in the study, and that mirrors some other research that's been done on social relationships and diet quality."
In her review, the problem with the research as that it didn’t seek to explain whether eating alone is a choice or a byproduct of a bigger problem or vice versa. Still, having studied health outcomes associated with living and eating alone, she says the results were actually expected.
She also noted that the rise in loneliness, one-parent families, and smaller family units, in general, may also have an impact.
"Having more sensitive measures of stressful life events might help unpack some of the association a little better… We know that sleep deprivation and stress create a vicious loop that alters eating behavior, and it could be one of the things driving the experience of eating alone and of metabolic syndrome."
There you have it, do yourself a favor and go on a date today.