The Importance of Eating Together

[xchrom]

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/07/the-importance-of-eating-together/374256/

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After my mother passed away and my brother went to study in New Zealand, the first thing that really felt different was the dinner table. My father and I began eating separately. We went out to dinners with our friends, ate sandwiches in front of our computers, delivery pizzas while watching movies. Some days we rarely saw each other at all. Then, a few weeks before I was set to leave for university, my father walked downstairs. “You know, I think we should start eating together even if it’s just you and me,” he said. “Your mother would have wanted that.” It wasn’t ideal, of course—the meals we made weren’t particularly amazing and we missed the presence of Mom and my brother—but there was something special about setting aside time to be with my father. It was therapeutic: an excuse to talk, to reflect on the day, and on recent events. Our chats about the banal—of baseball and television—often led to discussions of the serious—of politics and death, of memories and loss. Eating together was a small act, and it required very little of us—45 minutes away from our usual, quotidian distractions—and yet it was invariably one of the happiest parts of my day.

Sadly, Americans rarely eat together anymore. In fact, the average American eats one in every five meals in her car, one in four Americans eats at least one fast food meal every single day, and the majority of American families report eating a single meal together less than five days a week. It’s a pity that so many Americans are missing out on what could be meaningful time with their loved ones, but it’s even more than that. Not eating together also has quantifiably negative effects both physically and psychologically.

Using data from nearly three-quarters of the world’s countries, a new analysis from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) found that students who do not regularly eat with their parents are significantly more likely to be truant at school. The average truancy rate in the two weeks before the International Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), a test administered to 15-year-olds by the OECD and used in the analysis as a measure for absenteeism, was about 15 percent throughout the world on average, but it was nearly 30 percent when pupils reported they didn’t often share meals with their families.

Children who do not eat dinner with their parents at least twice a week also were 40 percent more likely to be overweight compared to those who do, as outlined in a research presentation given at the European Congress on Obesity in Bulgaria this May. On the contrary, children who do eat dinner with their parents five or more days a week have less trouble with drugs and alcohol, eat healthier, show better academic performance, and report being closer with their parents than children who eat dinner with their parents less often, according to a study conducted by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University.

[cali]

1. I didn't eat meals with my parents when I was a kid

The kids ate in the kitchen around 6. My parents ate in the dining room around 8- semi-formally. On weekends we ate with our parents in the dining room. It was generally hellacious. I much preferred the kitchen.

[handmade34]

2. good read

I did a study and paper on this in school... the effects of eating together (the art of "breaking bread" ) are numerous...

it is much more important than most imagine

[randome]

3. My daughters and I gather 'round the TV for dinner to watch Colbert and Stewart.

Usually I've already heard how their days went because they 'treat' me to a non-stop barrage of information as soon as I get home.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]The night is always young. It's never too late.[/center][/font][hr]

[Old Codger]

4. Dinner/Supper

Whatever name you give the evening meal.... I was raised that way, it was the one meal each day the whole family ate together. My wife and I have continued this ritual with our children, they have grown and have their own families which also continue this ...We now do foster care and have found that for children who have been taken from their homes and families (regardless how bad they ay have been) in most cases seem to get some feeling of belonging through this meals together...

[seabeyond]

5. eating our meals together was the best part of my day. five days a week. saturday and sunday

open cause i did not cook those two days.

i think i learned to eat so incredibly slow because of this. no one left until i was finished. lots of conversation. i recommend to all parents, stay true to that one.

[bhikkhu]

6. My ex-wife used the sit-down dinner as an occasion to air her grievances

Myself and the kids were a somewhat captive audience, as she sat at the table and criticized. She ate little while we tried to have our dinner. If I stuck up for the kids, I was undermining her. Attempts to lighten the mood were seen as contemptuous dismissals. The kids got the worst of it - my oldest daughter often left the table in tears. I often lost my appetite. My ex-wife often left the table in anger, to go visit sympathetic friends. At one point, we stopped having sit-down dinners, and she started just going out to eat with a friend of hers. It was a great relief, things became a bit more calm around the house, and we still don't really use the dining room table for eating.

Just saying...

[H2O Man]

7. Many of my family's

most interesting conversations take place at the table.