Study: Most Americans eat alone

Table for one, please.

According to a seriously depressing new study, most Americans eat alone these days. Researchers with The NPD Group concluded that 57 percent of all eating occasions — the three big meals, plus in-between snacking — happen solo.

The findings found breakfast to be the loneliest meal of the day, with 60 percent of people grabbing their morning grub on their own. Snacking proved to be the most solitary eating occasion overall — which makes sense, given the informality of chowing down on some 2 p.m. chips at your desk. Dinner was the meal least likely to be eaten at a table for one.

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The researchers with NPD think this is due to a variety of factors. First, 27 percent of all households are single-person households, so that's a large chunk of people whose lives are predisposed to solo-eating. Additionally, "consumption behaviors in the U.S. have become less household-oriented and more individualized than previous generations." We're pretty sure that's a euphemism for "everyone is too busy staring at their phones to need a table companion," but hey, apply your own analysis.