The study conducted on 93 healthy, premenopausal women confirmed what had long been hypothesized about loneliness and the desire to eat
The COVID-19 pandemic forced millions of people around the world, from 2020 and for the following two years, to deal with their loneliness amid imposed closures, limited travel and often remote working. This long and difficult period, however, allowed important studies to be carried out on the effects of a sedentary lifestyle, people’s ability to adapt, the consequences on productivity and education and also on loneliness and the effects of this condition on the brain. What if there was a correlation between social isolation and changing eating habits?
Solitude and food— This question was answered by a study conducted by UCLA Health, the public health system affiliated to the University of California, according to which women who feel lonely show increased activity in the areas of the brain associated with food cravings and to motivation in eating.
How the study was conducted— The study, published in JAMA Network Open, was conducted on a sample of 93 healthy, premenopausal women with the aim of ascertaining the effects of social isolation on the brain. The participants were followed from 7 September 2021 to 27 February 2023 and divided into two groups, on the one hand those with a higher score on the perceived social isolation scale, on the other those who, however, in the same reference period had could count on a more active social life.
The results— UCLA researchers observed that women with higher levels of social isolation tended to have higher fat mass, lower diet quality, greater cravings, and reward-based and often uncontrolled eating, as well as higher levels of anxiety and depression compared to the other group.
All the women who took part in the study were shown a series of comparison images: food versus non-food, sweet food versus non-food and salty food versus non-food. Thanks to the MRI performed while viewing those images it was discovered that the women who felt lonelier experienced greater activation in the brain regions associated with a greater desire to eat sugary foods as well as less activation in the brain region associated with self-control of eating behaviors.
The results, explained Arpana Gupta, researcher and co-director of the Goodman-Luskin Microbiome Center at UCLA, confirm what had already been hypothesized for some time: “When people are alone or solitary, the impact is not only on how they feel but also about what they eat, their desire to eat, and their cravings, especially for unhealthy foods.”
How to get out of the vicious circle— “If you have more cravings, you eat more and you may have more anxiety or depression, which can lead to eating more. This path is a vicious circle between unhealthy eating and negative mental symptoms,” underlined Xiaobei Zhang, researcher postdoctoral fellow and lead author of the study. The solution to get out of this vicious circle? According to the researchers, valid support could come from holistic mind-body interventions, but also from making healthier food choices.
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