Single Men Can Suffer From Poor Eating Habits

It seems that being a hen-pecked husband is much healthier than being a lonely single man.

In a study recently presented at a meeting of the American Psychosomatic Society, Patricia Mona Eng, M.S., revealed the findings of an ongoing study about the effects of divorce and widowhood on diet.

Researchers analyzed the routines of 29,728 male health professionals between the ages of 40 and 75 during two four-year periods and found that married men had more servings of vegetables each week, less fried food and were more likely to follow a smoking cessation program.

"We found that widowers ate three less servings of vegetables per week and divorced men had two less per week than married men" says Eng, lead author and a doctoral student at the School of Public Health at Harvard University. Having also found that smoking rates decreased among married men and remained the same amongst the divorced, she reports, "For men in particular, marriage may be a source of social support, which may be key in the initiation and maintenance of health behaviors."