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Living in Society

Eating Alone

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Most of the meals I take are eaten alone. It’s just the way my spouse and my schedules work out. I am an early riser and have coffee around 3 a.m. with breakfast a couple of hours later. Lunch is not really a meal in our house. I graze bits and nobs throughout the day, maybe warm some leftovers or make a sandwich, and keep track of calories consumed. We plan and share dinner, which usually involves shopping, food preparation, and cooking. Sometimes I cook and sometimes we both cook a meal. Until I read Deborah Madison and Patrick McFarlin’s book What we eat when we eat alone, I had not given much thought to eating alone.

Eating is fundamental not only to survival and health, but also to how humans organize their social lives. Eating together with others is often seen as the healthy ideal, while eating alone is highlighted as a risk factor for negative health outcomes, especially among older adults. (“The impact of eating alone on food intake and everyday eating routines: A cross-sectional study of community-living 70- to 75-year-olds in Sweden,” by Amanda Björnwall, Patricia Eustachio Colombo, et. al. Aug. 14, 2024).

Healthy ideal or not, I feel set in my ways. As I age, it seems likely I will continue to eat more meals alone than together. Well, maybe until I move to a facility where residents take all of their meals in a group setting. We increasingly don’t like talking about those institutions as we age.

My spouse is heading over to stay with her sister for a week to ten days. This will give me an opportunity to consider all that eating alone means. From the gitgo some questions come to mind.

  • Do I cook a meal or grab something already prepared?
  • Are cooking alone and eating alone the same thing?
  • Why is what I eat different when eating alone?
  • What role do restaurants and food outlets play in eating alone?
  • Eating in the car. What’s that about?
  • How do I shop differently to eat alone?
  • What role do leftovers play in eating alone?

This could be a rich field of inquiry. As of this writing, I don’t know where I am going with this. Stay tuned to find out.