Does marriage make men fatter?
Marriage, apparently, may lead to fatter men.
Research carried out by the Institute for Health and Wellbeing at Leeds Metropolitan University has shown that married men change their eating habits drastically and put on weight, whilst simultaneously consuming more wine than their single counterparts.
According to the Sunday Times, the report, commissioned by the Men’s Health Forum charity, concluded that "being married as opposed to single… made a significant contribution to body mass index in men," with married men boosting their size with more wholemeal bread, fruit and cakes.
Other factors that made a difference were household income and employment status, with more affluent men and those with jobs eating more fruit.
This is not, however, the first report to look into the health differences that marriage can make. A study published by the Harvard Medical School (HMS) showed that married men lived longer, with longer marriages also meaning yet longer lives.
Married men, HMS found during a 10-year study, had 46 per cent lower rate of death than unmarried men, even when risk factors such as age had been taken into account.