According to a study published in the journal Social Science and Medicine, the end of a marriage can lead to greater dietary harms for men than with women. The study specifically focused on what happens to a person’s diet when they divorce, separate, or are widowed. To conduct the study, researchers enlisted 11,577 adults, aged forty to eighty, in the United Kingdom.
Study participants self-reported between 1993 and 1997, and then again 1998 to 2002, the amount of fruits and vegetables they regularly ate from a designated list of fruits and vegetables. Whereas 89 percent of the men and 28 percent of the women were initially married at the first check-in, over the next 3.6 years, 2.4 percent of the men and 4.5 percent of the women had separated, divorced, or become widowed. Notably, men who divorced during the study reported a 25 percent reduction in daily consumption of fruits and vegetables over the remaining years of the study. Comparatively, the changes in daily fruit and vegetable consumption for women whose marriages ended was found to be statistically insignificant.
The study also looked into the differences in alcohol consumption for married persons versus those whose marriage ended . While men who divorced, separated, or became widowed showed no statistically significant changes in their daily alcohol consumption after the end of their marriage, women in the same circumstances actually reduced their alcohol consumption by approximately one alcoholic drink per week.
These changes in diet confirmed by the study tend to corroborate what we as North Carolina Divorce Attorneys regularly observe, which is those that are going through a separation and divorce are often stressed and emotional which can lead to fluctuation in diet and weight. It is interesting however that alcohol consumption remained steady for men and actually decreased for women as many people assume the stress of divorce leads to an increase in increase consumption.
If you are going through a separation or divorce and would like to speak with a North Carolina Divorce Attorney, please call us to schedule a confidential consultation at: (704) 810-1400.