Last April, Chrissy Teigen sarcastically confessed, “I have hit the double-digit mark on quarantine weight gain, so that’s fun!!” Justin Bieber and Gayle King have also admitted to pandemic padding.
Well, it’s more than inactivity that’s got them -- and you -- putting on weight. Seems “hungry for love” is not a metaphor. Isolation may make you crave food.
Neuroscientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology recently had volunteers undergo isolation and then food depravation and found when socially isolated participants looked at photos of people enjoyably interacting, the “craving signal” in their brain was similar to the signal produced when they viewed pictures of food after they had fasted.
So a smart pandemic weight-control plan involves more than great nutrition (no red or processed meats, ultraprocessed foods, or added syrups and sugars) and regular activity (150-300 minutes a week, even if indoors). You want to learn to ease your aloneness -- and reduce your food cravings -- even when you’re all by yourself!
1. Enjoy totally absorbing activities. Try gardening, painting, hiking, knitting -- anything you love to do.
2. Fill your home with music. A 2020 study in the journal Music & Science found that listening to enjoyable music works as what the researchers call a social surrogate.
3. Feel awe. Looking at beauty in artwork or in photos of landscapes will help ease your sense of deprivation.
4. Read autobiographies of folks who have overcome major challenges to help you stop “just me” thinking.
We hope this inspires you to overcome loneliness -- and reduce your cravings -- by nurturing your spirit.
Is your fight against COVID-19 going up in smoke?
The next Batman, Robert Pattinson, has been caught smoking and vaping -- and he contracted COVID-19 in September. A coincidence? Maybe not. It turns out both smoking and vaping substantially increase your risk of contracting the virus -- probably by altering your immune response to infection. According to a study published in the American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology, electronic cigarette users (just like tobacco cigarette users) have a very depressed immune response to influenza virus infection, suggesting increased susceptibility to COVID-19.
This insight comes on the heels of a Stanford University School of Medicine study that found teens and young adults who vape are five times more likely to contract COVID-19 than non-vapers. If they vape and smoke cigarettes, they’re seven times more likely.
If you’ve been vaping to stay off cigarettes or you smoke cigs -- or both -- it’s important to stop. You’ll protect your lungs from damage that makes them a target for respiratory infections, and you’ll spare your immune system changes that weaken your ability to fight off the flu and COVID-19.
-- There are Food and Drug Administration-approved smoking-cessation products. Check out ones you see online at www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cder/daf/. Type in a brand name to see if it’s safe and effective.
-- Download the quitStart app from smokefree.gov on Google Play and the Apple App Store. Carry support in the palm of your hand!
-- And manage your withdrawal symptoms with smoking-cessation products, like a nicotine patch or gum, exercise, deep breathing, meditation and distraction, such as playing a digital game.
Mehmet Oz, M.D. is host of “The Dr. Oz Show,” and Mike Roizen, M.D. is Chief Wellness Officer Emeritus at Cleveland Clinic. To live your healthiest, tune into “The Dr. Oz Show” or visit www.sharecare.com.
