With the many holiday events and gatherings approaching, Sweet Life Wellness wants to touch on an important topic that can deeply impact your progress in weight loss and weight management in both negative and positive ways: social eating. Social eating, the practice of eating and sharing meals with others, can be both helpful and potentially harmful to physical and emotional health. Maryland dietitian Kay Loughrey explores the benefits and potential pitfalls of social eating as well as several strategies for living your most joyful and healthy life as you enjoy food in social settings!
Benefits of Social Eating
Studies have shown that social eating can promote a higher view of self, leading to more positive self-esteem! Additionally, eating socially can help build the human “social network,” which has been known to help fight and prevent common diseases. Eating with others can also increase positive impact on mental health! Finally, most people participating in studies have stated that eating with others increases their positive outlook on life.
Pitfalls of Social Eating
Some negative aspects of social eating include overeating and eating pressures. Studies show that we tend to eat more than normal in group settings, especially if that group setting includes extra amounts of food. Some studies have even suggested the larger the group, the more food is available and consumed. When we eat alone, it has been found that we are more conscious of what we eat and how much we eat. Rather than saying, “I can only ever eat alone then!” we should instead begin to shift our thinking towards, “How can I make healthy conscious food choices in social eating settings?” and learn how to practice those conscious choices over and over until they become the norm!
Pressures to consume food are also higher in social eating settings. Perhaps due to a fear of not fitting in or a fear of insulting the host, we might break our own healthy choices and indulge beyond what we may have if we were alone. Another factor for caving to social eating norms may be to avoid feeling shame regarding pursuing something that others are not.
Strategies for Social Eating Situations
Here are a few strategies for how best to handle social eating situations!
- Determine what you would like to enjoy before the meal! Make a conscious choice to enjoy what you are eating but not to go past that decision.
- Include friends! Choose one or two friends with whom you can share your goals with who you know will support you during this journey! The entire group does not necessarily need to know; however, it can be helpful to have teammates on your side who can step in if you are being pressured to break your own goals and boundaries in pursuing a healthy life!
- Remember! Your boundaries and goals are YOURS! You can feel the freedom to make the boundaries and goals surrounding a healthy lifestyle and nutrition habits that will most help YOU. Your goals and boundaries are not for anyone else, and so other’s opinions are simply that… their opinions!
Social eating can bring such joy and fullness to your life! Yet it can also bring discouragement and setback if not approached wisely. Using Kay’s few tips from today, you can feel the freedom to enjoy delicious foods with your favorite people while still staying on track with being healthy! Learn more about mindfulness in your eating on another Sweet Life Wellness blog here! Read more about social eating habits in “Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think” by Brian Wansink here.
Resources
Dunbar RIM. Breaking Bread: the Functions of Social Eating. Adapt Human Behav Physiol. 2017;3(3):198-211. doi:10.1007/s40750-017-0061-4. Accessed October 29, 2023.
University of Oxford. “Social eating connects communities.” https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2017-03-16-social-eating-connects-communities. March 16, 2017. Accessed October 29, 2023.
Herman, C.P. The social facilitation of eating or the facilitation of social eating?. J Eat Disord 5, 16 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40337-017-0146-2
Anisa Saeed, Jenny Fisher, Zinnia Mitchell-Smith, Laura J E Brown, “You’ve Got to Be Old to Go There”: Psychosocial Barriers and Facilitators to Social Eating in Older Adults, The Gerontologist, Volume 60, Issue 4, June 2020, Pages 628–637, https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnz121
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Kay Loughrey, MPH, RDN, LDN
Transformational Speaker, Breakthrough Coach, Nutritionist-Dietitian
Karis N. Hicks
North Carolina Central University
M.S. – Nutrition Studies
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