New research suggests that eating with someone you are close to may dull the rise in blood sugar following a meal. Participants on the same carbohydrate meal had smaller glucose spikes and recovered faster when in company than when alone.
Published in Science Advances, the study looked at whether the presence of another person changes the way the body regulates itself. The paper’s indexed abstract said the glucose experiment had 108 participants.
Shir Atzil and Monia Masalha at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, alongside Shai Fuchs of Sheba Medical Centre, led the work. Their findings suggest that the social setting of a meal deserves attention alongside the food served.
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What changed when people ate together?
Researchers compared glucose responses to a standardised carbohydrate meal in both social and solitary settings. Maintaining consistency in the meal allowed them to focus on the importance of companionship rather than food differences.
The social condition resulted in a smaller disturbance in glucose levels and a faster recovery. The researchers refer to the broader concept as «social physiology,» which holds that human bodies may regulate basic functions more efficiently when they are near other people.
According to the university’s announcement, the benefits occurred without physical touch and went beyond simply reduced stress.
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An intriguing finding, with limits
The researchers also looked at how 116 people responded to colds and how 115 adults and 56 infants regulate stress. Those experiments also found benefits associated with social proximity, implying that the effect may go beyond digestion.
However, a lower glucose rise following a test meal does not prove that shared meals prevent diabetes or improve long-term disease outcomes. Those are separate questions that require additional evidence.
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Close relationships cannot supplant healthy eating, regular exercise, and medical attention, the researchers stress. The discovery provides more evidence that companionship is beneficial to physical health as well as mental health.
