Eating Alone Can Literally Change How Your Body Metabolizes Glucose - ScienceAlert

Dinner by yourself can be a lonely affair. The lack of social connection could change the way that your body processes your meal. A new study published in Science Advances has now found evidence that eating with others could help your body balance your blood sugar levels. In experiments, 108 participants consumed just over 100 grams of white-wheat bread. For the following two hours, researchers tracked their glycemic response. In one scenario, participants ate the bread on their own. In another scenario, they were accompanied by a close companion. In the social scenario, blood sugar levels spiked less and returned to baseline faster than in the alone scenario. The authors argue that this aligns with a "robust phenomenon" in humans. "Blood sugar regulation is not just about what we eat, but who we eat with," explains Shir Atzil from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel. "Our relationships have an active biological role in our physical well-being. "After the same carbohydrate meal, participants' blood sugar rose less when they ate with a close companion (blue) than when they ate alone (red).