After coming home from work during the week, I sometimes open the garage door to find my upstairs neighbor ready to greet me with one of her delicious meals. She’s shared lentil soup, banana bread, a lasagna inspired dish, pulled beef in mushroom sauce, cheesy potatoes, stuffed bell peppers, soup, homemade peanut brittle, and more with me! Even though we are not sitting down to eat the same thing, why does eating food shared by someone else feel so good to eat? Well maybe a part of it is because we appreciate the gesture and the time spent. However, food sharing and communal eating holds more weight than we may give it credit for.
We have shared food since the caveman days. Actually, eating together and sharing meals is theorized to be one of the most important activities cavemen did that promoted language development, social and self-awareness and collective learning. These social skills continue to encourage positive outcomes when sitting down for family dinners. Additionally, family meals provide opportunities for parents to model healthy eating behaviors, teach about appetite and fullness, and to expose children to a breadth of food choices and tastes; all of which contributes to the development of food and nutrition knowledge (Fieldhouse 2018). The higher the food and nutrition knowledge, the lower the likelihood children will grow to have nutrition-related diseases as they become autonomous and make their own food and meal choices (Brown et al, 2021). Young adults who grew up having regular family meals during their childhood and adolescence are linked to having better diet quality and are more likely to continue to prioritize their own family meals and seek out communal meal experiences once they are out of the nuclear home (Larson 2013).
The science behind the communal meal experience is pretty remarkable. The act of eating triggers the endorphin system, which when paired with others around you whose endorphin systems are also prompted, can greatly aid in even more enhanced endorphin effects. The enhanced endorphin effect occurs from being in sync with others, which has been related to the same enhanced effect as physical exercise (Cohen 2019). Communal eating is not of course, a substitute for exercise as it doesn’t include the physical benefits of getting your body to move, but why not enhance those endorphin reactions whenever possible? Endorphins are our bodies’ natural pain killers, reduce emotional stress and promote overall well-being.
Another cool thing that happens during communal meals, specifically if you’re eating the same food, is that trust and cooperation of the group are increased (Fishback 2019) One experiment of Fishback’s study was having the participants listen to someone offering a product testimonial. The person speaking was given food and the participant group that was given the same food as the speaker, were more likely to trust the speaker. The cooperation experiment is just as interesting, Fishback had volunteers eat the same food while they worked together to agree on a fake hourly wage in the roles of employees and union representatives. The volunteers given the same food reached an agreement quicker than those who ate different foods. Important side note, these volunteers were complete strangers- how freaking cool?
So, since March is national nutrition month, I hope you incorporate family and communal eating a little more often for opportunities to enhance your bonding, trust, cooperation and overall nutritional and mental health wellbeing. Or, if you have a neighbor, share some food with them!
