In the majority of cultures all over the world, eating is regarded as an activity that is best enjoyed in a group setting, but there are some great reasons to eat alone too. A family dinner on a Sunday night, a trip to a restaurant with your partner or brunch with your friends on a Saturday morning; when we eat it is nearly almost always with other people. However, eating along is becoming more and more common thanks to our busy schedules. Recent studies have proved that this isn’t necessarily a bad thing for our health and our happiness. Here are all the best reasons to eat alone.
1 You Can Eat Whatever You like!
Being able to binge on your favourite junk food isn’t necessarily a good thing, but if you have the chance to eat alone when usually you eat with somebody who has a shellfish allergy, then you can treat yourself for once and feast on things like shrimp or mussels! When you only have yourself to consider, you can also splurge on a slightly more-pricey dish than normal, or purchase more expensive ingredients to make yourself a posher dinner than usual. Freedom to eat what you choose is one of the best reasons to eat alone.
Frequently asked questions
2 You Don’t Have to Share
Don’t you hate it when you order a meal that you are excited about, and even before you are able to enjoy any of it for yourself, the person or people that you are with are digging their forks in for a taste. When you are dining alone, you don’t have this worry!
3 Easier to Be Healthy
When eating alone, you don’t have to worry about impressing people with a fancy dish. You can just make a healthy choice to enjoy a fresh salad without the pressure of making something indulgent with a posh dessert to finish it off.
4 Your Own Pace
If you are a particularly fast or particularly slow eater, you will often find that you struggle to incorporate this pace into a group dinner setting, always finishing way too early or being the last one to clear their plate. When you are eating alone, you are free to take as much time as you need to finish your meal, which can prevent things like indigestion.
5 Focus on Flavour
When you are eating with a large group or even cooking for a large group, it is often quantity and timing that are the priorities, rather than flavour. When you are making something for just yourself, you can spend more time fine tuning a dish and making sure that it tastes absolutely perfect.
6 No Time and Location Constraints
When you are the only person whose preferences need to be considered, you have more eating freedom when it comes to timing and location. If you like to eat your dinner much later than everyone else, when you are eating alone you actually get to do it, and the same goes for if you like eating in the garden, but everybody else likes eating at the kitchen table.
Essentially, eating alone enables you to make the choices you want to make but also, if you want to practice more mindful eating or want to follow a weight loss regime, it’s easier to do when you eat alone.
