Being in a happy, high-quality marriage may help prevent obesity by influencing the connection between the brain and the gut.

A world-first study on how social bonds influence weight and eating behaviors through "the love hormone" oxytocin has suggested that the quality of a person's relationships may be as important to physical health as eating well and exercising.

Researchers studied almost 100 people with a range of marital statuses, body mass index, race, age, sex, diets and economic statuses—analysing images of the subjects' brains while they looked at pictures of food. They also took samples of body fluids and conducted clinical and behavioral evaluations, including on how they felt about their emotional support system.

It found that married people with higher perceived emot

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