Loneliness Linked to Sugar Cravings, New Study Reveals
Credit – New York Post
A recent study conducted by UCLA Health has discovered a significant link between feelings of loneliness and cravings for high-calorie, sugary foods.
The study found that lonely women show heightened brain activity in areas linked to cravings for food. Specifically, when viewing images of high-calorie foods like sugary treats, these women displayed increased brain activity in areas associated with cravings and the drive to eat.
These women also exhibited unhealthy eating habits and suffered from poor mental health.
The research, led by Arpana Gupta, Ph.D., co-director of the UCLA Goodman-Luskin Microbiome Center, provides potential remedies to break the cycle of loneliness and unhealthy eating.
The researchers surveyed 93 women about their support system and their feelings of loneliness and isolation.
They then separated them into two groups: those who scored high on the perceived social isolation scale, and those who scored low.
MRI scans recorded the participants’ brain activity while they viewed images of food versus non-food, sweet food versus non-food, and savory food versus non-food.
The researchers found that women who had higher levels of social isolation tended to have higher fat mass, lower diet quality, greater cravings, reward-based eating, and uncontrolled eating. They also showed increased levels of anxiety and depression.
The group of women who perceived themselves to be lonely experienced increased activation in regions of the brain associated with greater cravings to eat sugary foods, and decreased activation in the brain region associated with self-control toward eating behaviors.
“These findings are interesting because it provides evidence for what we intuitively know,” Gupta said. “When people are alone or lonely, it impacts more than how they are feeling; they underreport what they eat, their desire to eat, and their cravings especially for unhealthy foods.”
The study suggests that building new social connections could lead to healthier eating habits.
It also indicates that the craving for sweet foods in lonely individuals might not just be a symptom of emotional distress but also a contributing factor to broader health issues.
Future research could expand on these findings with a more diverse and larger sample size to explore how changes in loneliness and social isolation affect women’s eating habits.
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