When Bridget Jones was dumped, she immediately reached for a tub of ice cream to soothe her emotional pain. Researchers say there’s a scientific reason for that.
Lonely women crave sweets because those foods can act like “emotional painkillers.”
A team at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) says their new study highlights a vicious cycle: unhealthy eating and worsening mental health feed each other.
Lead author Dr. Xiaobei Zhang warns that when lonely people give in to cravings—especially for sweets—their depression can deepen, which then leads to more eating.
What the study found
The researchers enrolled 93 women. In the first phase, they asked participants how lonely and isolated they felt and about their eating habits. Then the team analyzed each woman’s body composition and measured body-fat percentage.
Those who felt more isolated ate more unhealthy foods and showed stronger cravings and less control over eating. The loneliest respondents also reported more anxiety and depression symptoms than the others in the study.
In the second phase, participants viewed images of various foods—from spicy to sweet—and non-food items. While the women looked at the images, MRI scans recorded their brain activity, the Daily Mail reported.
Among the loneliest women, activity in a region of the lower parietal lobe associated with sweet-food cravings was higher. The MRI scans also revealed decreased activity in the brain areas responsible for self-control.
The team says sweet foods can have a pain-relieving effect, reducing the emotional pain tied to social isolation.
Previous studies have found that loneliness can shave years off a person’s life and is as harmful as smoking or obesity.
Research shows loneliness raises levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which can lead to inflammation, weight gain, and insulin resistance—risk factors for diabetes.
