Eating alone may be secretly spiking your blood sugar

Here’s the summary of the episode.

A new study suggests that eating with company might do more than just make a meal feel more pleasant—it could actually help your body regulate blood sugar. That finding is one of three science updates in this episode of NPR’s Short Wave, which also covers a landmark survey of how loud birds sing and a new analysis of asteroid samples that may reshape our understanding of how life’s ingredients arrived on Earth.

Eating together may help tame blood sugar spikes

Researchers in Israel gave participants the same amount of carbohydrates—in this case, bread—and then measured their blood glucose levels. The results, published in Science Advances, showed a clear difference: people who ate together were better at regulating their blood sugar than those who ate alone. Their blood sugar did not spike as high, and it returned to baseline more quickly. The researchers calculated that the social group was 24% more efficient at clearing glucose from their blood.