Eating alone puts men at greater risk of obesity, study finds

How often do you dine solo?

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Men who eat alone have a 45 per cent greater risk of developing obesity, a new study has found.

Researchers at Dongguk University Ilsan Hospital in Seoul, South Korea also found links between eating alone and high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

While their findings revealed health consequences for both men and women who dined solo, the effects were far more prevalent in men.

The study examined 7,725 adults who were asked to state how often they ate on their own.

They found that dining habits posed health threats for those who ate alone more than twice a day.

Scientists also found that these individuals were more likely to be single, live alone and skip meals.

Men who ate alone more than twice a day were the most likely to develop abdominal obesity; typically these men did not have spouses.

Published in Obesity Research & Clinical Practice, the study showed that men who ate on their own also were 64 per cent more likely to develop metabolic syndrome, which is a combination of diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity.

Meanwhile, women who regularly ate alone were 29 per cent more likely to contract metabolic syndrome.

A dangerous condition, metabolic syndrome puts you at greater risk of coronary heart disease and stroke, according to the NHS.

The study was inspired by findings which showed that households are getting smaller and more people are living alone than ever before.

ONS figures show that there were 7.7 million people living alone in the UK as of last year, the majority of which were women.