Eating is essential for life, and everyone has different approaches to meal time. Some people may approach eating as a way to gain energy or make themselves full, but eating can also be much more than that. When people eat, it can also be a social event with others. In fact, a lot of people around the world see value in eating with others.
This is called social eating. Social eating can be something as small as meeting a friend for lunch, or something as big as having a family feast during a holiday. There is actually research that shows that social eating can be positive for peoples’ health in many ways.
What is this Research Study?
During a time period of one week in April 2016, 2,000 adults from across the United Kingdom took part in a study that asked various questions about how often they ate with others, their mood, and their relationships with others. This study looked exclusively at the more day-to-day meals that people have, rather than big feasts, as it was harder to study those events with enough evidence. The purpose of this study was to see if social eating would increase participants' positive feelings towards their own lives and their relationships with others.
Results
At the end of the research period, results showed that 93% of people sometimes had meals with others.This shows how many people tend to eat meals with others. 70% of people had positive feelings towards their lives, whether that be the amount of happiness that they felt, or personal value of their lives. Results also showed that people who did not eat with others had less trustworthy relationships with others.
What Do the Results Tell Us?
The results from this study show that those who make an effort to include social eating into their lives generally feel more positive about themselves and have a larger group of people that can help them in times of need. A bigger support network helps everyone deal with stress that comes up in life. Furthermore, the results imply that people are impacted positively by eating together. When asked for their opinions, 76.4% of participants agreed that eating together is a good way to get to know others better, and clearly that way of thinking has some truth to it.
While the researchers in the study did say that they were unsure how exactly social eating creates these positive connections, the study shows that the activities that happen during meals with others may be big factors.
On a scientific level, a lot of activities that people do when having a meal with others - tell stories, laugh together, or drink alcohol, for example - increase something in our brains called endorphins. Endorphins make people feel more relaxed and happier. Therefore, it is unsurprising that there is a large body of evidence that shows social eating may be good for people on multiple levels: it helps on a social level, as well as a person’s mental and physical health.
Overall, the findings showcase that eating may provide a lot more benefits if it involves other people.
Author's Note
Although we are currently still in a pandemic, I hope that people are still able to connect with their friends and families in other ways. Social eating can still work in a social-distanced setting. You can open a Zoom call and have a conversation with someone over lunch. COVID-19 may have changed the ways in which people interact, but when conditions improve, it can be a good thing to include more connections between people through shared meals.
Growing up, eating with my family was very important. It was a time that everyone could get together and talk about their day. I really appreciated having my whole family together at dinner because it made all of my family feel more connected. It is something that I have always cherished, and as I get older, that remains true.
Source
Dunbar, R. I. M. (2017). Breaking bread: The functions of social eating. Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology, 3(3), 198-211. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40750-017-0061-4
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