Importance of having – meals
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This may sound absurd…
This recommendation may sound absurd to some, but it actually is not at all. Eating between meals has become more frequent, whereas enjoying meals in the company of others has become quite rare.
Sociologists studying eating habits claim that we have added a fourth element to the traditional dining trinity – breakfast, lunch and dinner – we keep sipping onto some beverage or nibbling onto some snack all day long (while watching TV, driving, etc).
Sitting at the table is how we unite feeding and socialising (and parenting in particular). Our species has evolved speech during meals and this is what we call a culture.
Most families rarely have meals at the table and rarely together. Frequently we have our meals alone and we mostly have only what we feel like eating. Subsequently we eat more – people tend to eat more when served with food of their preference – while food companies support these trends and advertise various dishes for every member of a family (low-calorie food, nutritionally-enhanced foods, such as calcium enhanced meals for children, diabetes adjusted diet, etc).
Snacks and crisps are the gravest hazard to the traditional dining, while having snacks has taken up new dimensions and new parts of days in our lives over the recent years. For example, being at work used to be, to a smaller or bigger extent, a time with no food between meals. This is no longer the case. Today offices have well-equipped kitchens, microwave ovens, pastry shops with a profusion of bagels, muffins, pies, cakes, etc. Furthermore, we drink more juices than ever – and here we are talking about sweetened, carbonated beverages with no nutritious value (despite being enriched with vitamins, minerals and others), with loads of sugar, preservatives and other supplements.
Almost all calories we have added to our diet over the past two decades come from snacks and crisps containing skilfully devised and spiced combinations of processed carbohydrates, hydrogenized oils, corn syrup and salt in abundance.
In order to re-establish meals to their former importance certain rules can help:
- When we eat we should do it at the table,
- We should avoid buying food at petrol stations or bakeries,
- Try to have meals in company of others,
- Avoid having your meals in front of the TV,
- Avoid eating between meals (apart from fruit),
- Drink water or herbal tea; absolutely avoid processed beverages,
- Try to listen to internal messages of your body – do not allow external influences determine what and when to eat.
“Tossed Salad With Nice Garnish”- Image courtesy of stockimages / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
“Couple Having Lunch” - Image courtesy of Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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