Commensality – Part 2

In my first blog on this topic, I wrote about the pros and cons of sharing a meal with friends and family. Everyone should experience delicious food, with good people, enjoying easy conversation: because those three things are the ingredients that create a memorable event.

 

The research behind shared eating events is why the Ambient Menu was created, and we want everyone to enjoy this experience as much as we do.

 

So, if the first blog piqued your curiosity into why eating with friends is so vital for your overall well-being, then keep reading…….because, there is more!

Special thanks to Ambient Menu Ambassador Barb, who let me share these photos of what sharing a meal is all about. Good food, good people, bonding with family……… and a lot of good wine 🍷🍷🍷

 

Benefits of Commensality – part 2

 

1. Celebrations bring a distant family together

Especially this year, bringing families together is even more critical. Whether your relatives live over the border, or your family is usually dispersed in their own busy lives, festive occasions bring families together. A classic example of this is Thanksgiving in the United States, where food is a central part of the gathering, and it is typically among close associates and family ^(6).

 

2. Cooking for others improves one’s mood and sense of importance (especially for widows)

Studies have found that cooking a homemade dish from fresh ingredients filled the chef with comfort and created feelings of intimacy. Food preparation may be a chore when you’re a ‘busy Mum’, but when you are retired and doing it for the family who no longer live with you, people are filled with positive emotions.

 

When cooking a meal for the family, the ‘chef’ felt a strong sense of doing something extraordinary for others and preparing that food was a symbolic gift. It was made more critical by serving the meal in a special room, such as the dining room. The importance was increased when they also got to make the occasion special by decorating the table with tablecloths, fine dinnerware and then gifting meticulously presented food. During the meal, they engaged with family and enjoyed eating the meal with them. This meal sharing increased their pleasure from the event and induced increased emotions of happiness and appetite. Post-meal, they enjoyed the praise and gratitude that comes from delivering such a meal and occasion. This engagement with loved ones and flattery afterwards makes the effort of preparing the meal worth it ^(8).

 

These positive feelings were even more enhanced for recent widows. For widows, the impact of mealtime was significant in the early period after the death of their husbands. Dinnertime was suddenly very quiet and lonely, and the absence of their spouse was accentuated. One study found that many widows claimed they had lost the meaning of cooking as it was not worth it to just cook for themselves. This led them to eat out, skip meals or get takeaway as they did not enjoy ‘gifting’ the food. They had no inspiration to plan, prepare and cook the meal, which led to a risk of meal skipping. This progressed to declining self-care as they had little motivation to create a meal as there was nobody to serve and nobody to eat with ^(8).

 

3. The anticipation of a family gathering induces endorphins which increases resilience

A recent study found that anticipating a positive event such as a family gathering or a fantastic meal, induced positive emotions both during and after the event. This in turn, improved ones resilience to stress and ability to cope in the weeks leading up to, and after the anticipated event ⁽¹⁴⁾.

 

4. Improved outcomes in Hearing Impaired children

Commensality is a mediator in constructing a child’s sense of belonging to a family and society. Therefore, the interaction between family dinners can improve a child’s school performance as it strengthens their sense of empowerment ⁽⁶⁾.

5. Establishing social norms in children

Meals regulate social lives, behaviours and table manners. Children who have regular family meals have improved long term physical and mental health benefits, with improved social skills and less aggressive ^{(1), (15)}.

 

6. Creates intimacy

People who share food feel a personal relationship with their fellow diner, rather than a professional one. Sharing or touching the same food making it ‘contaminated by that person’ indicated a closeness of that relationship. It is a commonplace to see two people dining together and assume they are a couple ⁽¹⁾. So, if this evidence is correct, if you go on a first date and really like the person, get a shared tapas plate 😉

 

7. Improves workplace moral and performance

A study looked at how firefighters engaged in commensality and how it affected their interactions and work performance. The researchers found a significant positive association between commensality and group performance. They summarised that the robust activity of eating can enhance team outcomes ⁽⁶⁾. Having staff dine in the same area as management provided a safe space for informal communication, which allowed them to destress and establish workplace norms ⁽⁶⁾.

 

Firefighters

To give you insight into what I witnessed as an ambo at cohabitating stations, firies have great comradery. You would assume that they would get on each other’s nerves during their 10 / 14 hour shifts when they are living in each other’s pockets right? I never witnessed that tension. When on a tasking, I noted they worked well together. Every person had a role to play.  When on station, they complete all the required duties like cleaning and cooking, and every person still has an important role to fulfil. They have a worldwide recognised comradery and culture where they cook for the team and dine together as a family. As an ambo I often admired their sense of camaraderie and bonding that happened over the meal (not that us ambos don’t have great comradery, we’re just too busy working to sit down and have a meal).

 

This research generated a model of how firefighters use commensality to bond and create a great culture where team members become like family. This conceptual diagram illustrates how commensality affects organisational performance ⁽⁶⁾.

 

My observations (and researchers) noted that firies spend a significant amount of time in the dining room after returning from a job. This room became the primary location where they would debrief. When interviewed by researchers, firies reported a strong tradition of eating and cooking together with their team and rated it 9/10 importance. Regarding how often their team cooks together, 92% said every shift ⁽⁶⁾.

 

Researchers concluded that eating together was significantly associated with better performance. The above image was created after noting the relationship between dining together, cooperative behaviour and improved work performance on and off the station. Stations that dined less with each other did not report the same positive relationship between cohesion and work performance. They acknowledged that while the life-or-death nature of firefighting encourages a high degree of bonding and mutual support, commensality distinctly was an essential part of the firey culture and improved how fire stations functioned and performed ⁽⁶⁾.

 

 

Negatives of Commensality

 

1. Spread of infection (Covid)

A hot topic at the moment with the state re-opening its borders, I know…… But dining together also brings super spreader events, these have occurred in both Australia and overseas. Covid isn’t the only risk though. An ill-prepared meal can put a whole family in the ED from botulism (take it from a 20-year ambo, this has happened before).

 

2. Pressure

When I asked my Mum why she hadn’t invited us over for dinner in over 7 years, she said she feels too much pressure cooking for others. Fair enough, maybe she was thinking about the above point.

 

3. Can create anxiety

The stress of preparing food for today’s diets – gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan, allergies, pescatarian, purple people eaters, can induce an anxiety attack while thinking about what you are going to cook. I can attest to this in my family. So in between the 1 x egg allergy, 2 x nut allergy, 1 x coeliac, 1 x anti-inflammatory diet = we go out to a restaurant instead.

 

4. Deaf children can miss out on conversation

Conversations at the dinner table typically involve turn-taking, whose turn it is to speak. Unfortunately, research has shown that Hearing Impaired individuals who live in hearing, non-signing homes, often miss out on these exchanges as AUSLAN uses turn-taking rules different from hearing individuals.

 

Communication etiquette of hearing individuals use an auditory cue to get a turn. Then cue others when a new speaker is talking, however hearing individuals frequently interrupt each other. When Hearing Impaired individuals attempt to gain a turn, they are lost in the conversation and the frequent interrupting. This is known as ‘dinner table syndrome’. One study found Hearing Impaired family members felt loved but disconnected as they were left out of the conversation ⁽¹²⁾.

 

Although some research shows how it improves communication in Hearing Impaired children, this relies on the family’s communication skills and only work if they don’t constantly interrupt each other.

 

5. Dysfunctional families increase anxiety in children

Dysfunctional relationships around the dinner table can affect cognitive performance and jeopardise the social inclusion of children ⁽⁵⁾.

 

6. False expectations

Some people may invite others into their homes for dinner and assume a degree of reciprocal commitment/involvement and use this time to ask for a favour to be returned.

 

7. Separate meal rooms for management and staff

Having different meal rooms for varying levels of management can reinforce the divide between management and staff ⁽⁶⁾.

 

 

Summary

Our lifestyle has changed a lot in the last 20 years. Time spent together at the family dinner table has decreased, replaced with simplified quick meals, fast foods or grazing. But, an interesting observation is that while people spend less time cooking these days, cooking TV shows are on the rise. I have caught myself getting home late after driving home from kids sport, then we all sit down and eat a frozen meal on the couch while watching Masterchef. The irony of watching someone else cook rather than spend the same time cooking a healthy meal myself is not lost on me.

 

Enjoying a meal with family assists bonding and developing healthy eating habits, but it does not happen for valid reasons in many homes. Whilst busy schedules and complicated lives make commensality a challenge, families should attempt to prioritise meals together as the benefits of healthier eating, social engagement, and better quality of living outweigh the negatives (most of the time, again, it’s the dysfunctional families where this is not the case – they need counselling not commensality)…….

 

I’ll be continuing this topic in future blogs. There is so much I want to share about the importance of shared eating. I’m incredibly excited to share the results of the three years of research that I was a part of, initially as a student – now as a supervisor. I’ll also come back to point 3 on this blog, where I discuss how the anticipation of a family gathering induces endorphins which increases resilience. I interviewed a researcher who completed their PhD on this topic, and the results were fascinating.

 

 

References

 

1 Fischler, C. (2011). Commensality, society and culture. Social Science Information, 50(3–4), 528–548. https://doi.org/10.1177/0539018411413963

 

2 Meiselman, H.L, Johnson, J.L, Reeve, W, & Crouch, J.E. (2000). Demonstrations of the influence of the eating environment on food acceptance. Appetite, 35(3), 231-237.

 

3 Sobal, Jeffery, & Nelson, Mary K. (2003). Commensal eating patterns: A community study. Appetite, 41(2), 181-190.

 

4 Giacoman, C. (2016). The dimensions and role of commensality: A theoretical model drawn from the significance of communal eating among adults in Santiago, Chile. Appetite, 107, 460-470.

 

5 Oliveira, Ronaldo Gonçalves, Ferreira, Francisco Romão, & Prado, Shirley Donizete. (2017). Eating at the Table: Social Inclusion of a Deaf Person by their Family through Commensality. Demetra: Alimentação, Nutrição E Saúde, 12(4), Demetra: Alimentação, Nutrição e Saúde, 2017-07-13, Vol.12 (4).

 

6 Kniffin, Kevin M, Wansink, Brian, Devine, Carol M, & Sobal, Jeffery. (2015). Eating Together at the Firehouse: How Workplace Commensality Relates to the Performance of Firefighters. Human Performance, 28(4), 281-306.

 

7 Nakata, Ryuzaburo, & Kawai, Nobuyuki. (2017). The “social” facilitation of eating without the presence of others: Self-reflection on eating makes food taste better and people eat more. Physiology & Behavior, 179, 23-29.

 

8 Sidenvall, Birgitta, Nydahl, Margaretha, & Fjellström, Christina. (2000). The Meal as a Gift—The Meaning of Cooking Among Retired Women. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 19(4), 405-423.

 

9 Donkin, Angela J.M, Johnson, Angela E, Lilley, Jeanette M, Morgan, Kevin, Neale, Roger J, Page, Robert M, & Silburn, Richard L. (1998). Gender and Living Alone as Determinants of Fruit and Vegetable Consumption among the Elderly Living at Home in Urban Nottingham. Appetite, 30(1), 39-51.

 

10 Harrison, M. E., Norris, M. L., Obeid, N., Fu, M., Weinstangel, H., & Sampson, M. (2015). Systematic review of the effects of family meal frequency on psychosocial outcomes in youth. Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien, 61(2), e96–e106.

 

11 Ohlin, S., n.d. 5 Great Reasons Not To Have Family Dinner Every Night. [online] Project Hot Mess. Available at: <https://projecthotmess.com/5-great-reasons-not-to-have-family-dinner-every-night/> [Accessed 29 December 2020].

 

12 Meek, D. R. (2020). Dinner Table Syndrome: A Phenomenological Study of Deaf Individuals’ Experiences with Inaccessible Communication. Qualitative Report, 25(6), 1676A-1694.

 

13 Gray, L. A., Hernandez Alava, M., Kelly, M. P., & Campbell, M. J. (2018). Family lifestyle dynamics and childhood obesity: evidence from the millennium cohort study. BMC public health, 18(1), 500. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-018-5398-5

 

14 Monfort, Samuel S, Stroup, Hannah E, & Waugh, Christian E. (2015). The impact of anticipating positive events on responses to stress. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 58, 11-22.

 

15 University of Montreal. (2017, December 14). Eating together as a family helps children feel better, physically and mentally: Long-term effects of family meals in early childhood. ScienceDaily. Retrieved from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171214092322.htm