家人共餐益處多
視點
作者：by Cody C. Delistraty
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， and got 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 1）therapeutic： an excuse to talk， to reflect on the day， and on recent events. Our chats about the 2）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， 3）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 his/her car， 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 4）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.
There are two big reasons for these negative effects associated with not eating meals together： the first is simply that when we eat out—especially at the inexpensive fast food and take-out places that most children go to when not eating with family—we tend not to eat very healthy things.
The other reason is that eating alone can be alienating. The dinner table can act as a unifier， a place of community. Sharing a meal is an excuse to catch up and talk， one of the few times where people are happy to put aside their work and take time out of their day. After all， it is rare that we Americans grant ourselves pleasure over productivity （just look at the fact that the average American works nearly 220 hours more per year than the average Frenchman）.
It hasn’t always been the case that Americans don’t prioritize eating together and eating slowly. In 1950， Elizabeth David published A Book of Mediterranean Food. She wrote that great food is simple. She proposed that meals didn’t have to come from fancy or trendy restaurants， and that enjoying basic meals with loved ones makes for the best eating.