Gaby
When Bridget Jones was dumped, she immediately reached for a tub of ice cream to soothe her emotional pain. And scientists understand why she did that.
Lonely women crave sweets, as they act like “emotional painkillers,” researchers say.
A team from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) stated that the findings from their new study highlight a “vicious cycle between unhealthy eating and negative mental symptoms.”
Lead author Dr. Xiaobei Zhang warned lonely snackers: if they give in to their cravings for food—especially sweets—and eat more, their feelings of depression will intensify. As a result, they will eat even more.
What Scientists Discovered
The researchers involved 93 women in their study. In the first phase, they asked all participants how lonely and isolated they felt. The women also shared their eating habits. Afterward, the team analyzed each woman’s body composition and assessed their body fat percentage.
The results showed that women who felt more socially isolated had higher levels of body fat. They consumed more unhealthy foods and exhibited stronger cravings and uncontrolled eating patterns. Additionally, the loneliest respondents displayed more symptoms of anxiety and depression than the other women in the study.
In the second phase, participants were shown various types of food—from spicy to sweet—as well as non-food items. While the women viewed the images, an MRI scanned their brain activity, the Daily Mail reported.
Among the loneliest women, the activity in the lower parietal lobe, which controls cravings for sweet foods, was the highest. The MRI scans also revealed decreased activity in the brain areas responsible for self-control.
The researchers noted that sweet foods have a sort of pain-relieving effect: they “can reduce the emotional pain associated with social isolation.”
Previous studies have pointed out that loneliness can take years off one’s life and is just as dangerous as smoking and obesity.
Scientists have repeatedly warned that loneliness increases levels of the stress hormone cortisol. This can lead to unhealthy inflammation within the body, weight gain, and insulin resistance, which may cause diabetes.
