Eating

In the U.S., solo dining reservations have risen 29% over the last two years, according to OpenTable, the restaurant reservation site. They’re also up 18% this year in Germany and 14% in the United Kingdom.

Japan even has a special term for solo dining: “ohitorisama,” which means “alone.” In a recent survey, Japan’s Hot Pepper Gourmet Eating Out Research Institute found that 23% of Japanese people eat out alone, up from 18% in 2018. As a result, many restaurants in Japan and elsewhere are redoing their seating, changing their menus, and adding other special touches to appeal to solo diners. Even so-called family restaurants are increasing counter seats for solitary diners, and restaurants are offering courses with smaller servings so a person eating alone gets a variety of dishes.

OpenTable CEO Debby Soo thinks remote work is one reason for the increase, with diners seeking respites from their home offices. The pandemic also made social interactions less feasible and therefore less important while eating out.

The growth in solo dining also is the result of more people who are living alone. In 2019, the Pew Research Center found that 38% of U.S. adults ages 25 to 54 were living without a partner, up from 29% in 1990. In Japan, single households now make up one-third of the total; that’s expected to climb to 40% by 2040, according to government data.

Increasing interest in solo travel – particularly among travelers ages 55 and over – is also leading to more meals alone.

Possible Preaching Angle:

A time of solitude can be a refreshing break from a busy schedule. But for many people solitude is not a choice. Without putting singles in an embarrassing spotlight, it would be encouraging if church members would diplomatically invite singles to share a homecooked meal, especially during the holidays.

Fine dining typically means splurging a little for high-quality meat or fresh seafood. But what if money were truly no object?

Restaurant owners and chefs around the world create original dining experiences for those who want unique experiences. You know, like spending nearly $10,000 on a pizza or $1,000 on an ice cream sundae.

Here are a few of the world’s most expensive meals:

• Masa — New York. Dinner Omakase menu per person: $750 sushi-eating experience.

• SubliMotion —Dubai. Dinner per person: around $2,000. That’s more than the average family will spend for an entire month on food.

• De Daltons – The Netherlands. The Golden Boy Burger: $5,532.79. Chef Robbert Jan de Veen’s “The Golden Boy” is made with 100% Wagyu A5 meat, as well as Beluga caviar, king crab, Spanish Paleta Ibérico, white truffle, and English cheddar.

• Renato Viola — Salerno, Italy. Louis XIII Pizza: $9,184.32. Pizza toppings include: mozzarella di bufala, lobster, and caviar all flown in from all different parts of the world.

• The Fortress Resort and Spa — Sri Lanka. The Fortress Stilt Fisherman Indulgence Dessert: $14,500. The dessert features Italian cassata flavored with Irish cream with a pomegranate and mango compote. The base is adorned with an 80-carat aquamarine stone.

Possible Preaching Angles:

(1) Salvation and The Lord's Supper—They're both offered free of charge (although Jesus paid the price that we could never have paid), and the Lord's Supper is better than anything on this list. (2) Social Justice—While millions of people are malnourished, a few people can afford outrageously expensive, luxurious meals. (3) Simplicity; Provision—God promised to provide daily bread, not daily slice of "Louis XIII" pizza. (4) Hospitality—Hospitality is more about love and openness than about trying to offer a "world's best meal." Encourage people to keep it simple.

When I was a child, my dad made up a fake holiday called Big Sandwich Night the weekend after Thanksgiving. On that night we got the longest bread we could find and built a big sandwich together and then cut it up and ate it. We got really fancy ingredients and each built our own section of sandwich before cutting it. Building the sandwich together represents community or teamwork. After dinner we would put our Christmas tree up and the holiday season was officially kicked off with Big Sandwich Night.

I grew up believing this was a real holiday that Americans everywhere celebrated until when I was eight-years-old. I asked a friend if they were excited for Big Sandwich Night and they were like “What are you talking about?” It kind of shattered my worldview, but we still celebrate it and I’ve spread the tradition to friends and partners.

Over the years as we’ve included more people, we’ve started having to graft loaves together to make a sandwich big enough for everyone. But it still communicates the core idea of everyone eating the same sandwich together in fellowship.

Possible Preaching Angle:

What a good idea to promote community with family and friends, especially in-person community.

For busy families, gathering together for dinner can feel like an impossibility. Children could use it now more than ever. Robin Black-Burns’s teenage daughter has after-school activities that fall over dinnertime, making evening meals at home a thing of the past. The SUV has become their de facto dinner table.

Robin’s daughter, 14-year-old Athena Burns, has dinner in the car four nights a week, eating during the hourlong drive home from robotics-club meetings. Robin usually arrives at her daughter’s school 15 minutes early to eat her own dinner in the front seat while waiting for Athena. Ms. Black-Burns says, “We wonder why so many kids have anxiety. Well, gee, they have a rigorous academic schedule and after-school activities and they’re eating in the car.”

In 2021, 44% of high-school students said they felt persistently sad or hopeless in the past year, according to data from the CDC. At the same time, mounting scientific research shows that gathering for regular meals and conversation might be one way to build children’s emotional resilience.

Nationwide surveys show that the number of dinners parents and children eat together has fallen in recent decades. The primary reason: the conflicting schedules of working parents and kids.

“It’s so basic that people forget about it,” says Ellen Rome, head of Adolescent Medicine at Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital. Gathering around the table, Dr. Rome says, is “a useful mechanism for creating connectedness and role-modeling behaviors that parents want children to emulate. … We have a lot of adolescents who’ve devolved to having all of their meals in their bedroom. It’s a significant step away from family connection.”

Professor Jerica Berge, in a teen-eating study, has continued to follow research participants from a 2010 survey group, then-adolescents who are now in their 20s. Those who had eaten two to three family meals a week as teens had lower rates of obesity and eating disorders, as well as better mental-health outcomes than those who had eaten fewer meals together. Those young adults now give priority to dining with their own children and partners.

Young adults who had eaten meals with their families three to five times a week as adolescents had even more-significant physical and mental-health benefits.

The typical family spends just six hours together a week, thanks in part to long working hours and time spent diving down the digital device rabbit hole.

According to a study of 2,000 British parents with children at home, most agree that work shifts are hindering family quality time (56 percent). Other factors include homework (29 percent), household chores (27 percent), TV time (21 percent), social media use (20 percent), and after school activities (19 percent).

When families are at home together, 37 percent admit they don’t set aside specific time to spend with one another. The survey finds half of respondents think there are too many distractions in the home—particularly devices with screens—which impact quality time.

There’s plenty of research that shows how eating meals together as a family has positive effects on everyone. To that end, a quarter of parents would like to eat more family meals together to encourage conversation, as 42 percent say they struggle to initiate chats with their children. The most popular topics around the table when they do dine together are: school (50 percent), TV shows (48 percent), and friendships (46 percent).

Aside from mealtimes, parents are most likely to chat to their children when in the car (57 percent), putting them to bed (40 percent), and walking to and from school (38 per cent).

Everyone knows your family can be a pain in the neck sometimes, but regular family dinners can be the key to reduced stress levels in the household. This was found in a survey by the American Heart Association (AHA), who research chronic stress which can increase rates for all manner of heart diseases.

Of the 1,000 U.S. adults surveyed in September 2022, 91% of respondents said their family was less stressed when they share meals together. 84% say they wish they could share a meal more often with loved ones.

Dr. Erin Michos said, “Sharing meals with others is a great way to reduces stress, boost self-esteem, and improve social connection, particularly for kids. Chronic, constant stress can also increase your lifetime risk of heart disease and stroke. So, it is important for people to find ways to reduce and manage stress as much as possible, as soon as possible.”

Connecting with friends, family, coworkers and neighbors benefits people beyond stress relief. In fact, the survey found a majority of people say sharing a meal reminds them of the importance of connecting with other people, and say it reminds them to slow down and take a break.

Those surveyed say they are more likely (59%) to make healthier food choices when eating with other people but have difficulty aligning schedules with their friends or family to do so. Overall, respondents reported eating alone about half of the time.

Dr. Michos said, “It’s not always as easy as it sounds to get people together at mealtime. Like other healthy habits, give yourself permission to start small and build from there.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Eating together as a family takes sacrifice and planning. Start from an early age with your children (but it’s never too late). Turn off the TV and cell phones. Plan for some conversation and allow even the youngest to contribute.

Writing for The Atlantic, David Merritt Johns says that a most confounding story appeared in his inbox by a tipster who prefaced it by saying, “I’m sorry, it cracks me up every time I think about this.”

Harvard doctoral research student Andres Korat found a curious result from a 2018 study: Among diabetics, eating half a cup of ice cream a day was associated with a lower risk of heart problems. After consulting with his department chair, Korat set out to debunk his initial finding with more research, but it ended up being stubbornly consistent.

Korat wrote in his findings, “There are few plausible biological explanations for these results.” But he also mentioned several prior studies that found similar results. Mark Pereira is an epidemiologist who authored one of those prior studies. He said, “I still to this day don’t have an answer for it.”

In his deep dive into the story, Johns claims that several medical researchers ended up spinning their data into conclusions more readily acceptable to mainstream audiences. Instead of touting the health benefits of ice cream, they pivoted to yogurt. One research paper read: “Higher intake of yogurt is associated with a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes. Whereas other dairy foods and consumption of total dairy are not.”

“The conclusions weren’t exactly accurately written,” acknowledged Dariush Mozaffarian, who co-authored the paper. “Saying no foods were associated—ice cream was associated.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Even with advances in medical knowledge and technology, the human body is complex and full of surprises. Only God understands it fully, and our best attempts are foolish compared to God's wisdom.

A woman from Omsk, Russia, is reportedly suing McDonald's over an advertisement featuring cheeseburgers and chicken nuggets, which she said caused her to break her fast during Lent. Ksenia Ovchinnikova, an Orthodox Christian, said she was trying to stay away from meat and other animal products during the six-week period leading up to Easter.

She said, “When I saw an advertising banner, I could not help myself. I visited McDonald's and bought a cheeseburger.” In her official complaint, she explains: “In the actions of McDonald's, I see a violation of the consumer protection law. I ask the court to investigate and, if a violation has taken place, to oblige McDonald's to compensate me for moral damage in the amount of one thousand rubles ($14 US dollars).”

Yes, we all know we should eat healthy. But even the healthiest of diets can meet their match in an all-too-familiar enemy: stress.

A study published in Molecular Psychiatry "suggests stress can override the benefits of making better food choices." The findings were based on research in which 58 women "completed surveys to assess the kinds of stress they were experiencing" and also were given "two different types of meals to eat, on different days": one meal with plenty of saturated fat, the other a healthier option with plenty of plant-based oils. Some "counterintuitive" results came back from the experiment. According to the study's author, Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, "If a woman was stressed on a day when she got the healthy meal, she looked like she was eating the saturated fat meal in terms of her [inflammation] responses." Over time, high levels of inflammation could potentially lead to "a range of diseases."

Thankfully, NPR's coverage of the study ended on a hopeful note, alluding to "a whole range of strategies that have been shown to help manage stress," including performing kind deeds for others and what they called "perhaps the world's greatest stress reliever"—close, personal relationships.

Potential Preaching Angles: Science is showing that healthy eating may not always win out against stress, and even the best stress relievers may fail at times—but the "close, personal relationship" we have with our Savior is one that has already won against stress, fear, and even death.

3,975 The number of feet of the longest loaf of bread in the world, made at a bakers' party in Portugal in 2005. When sliced, it fed over 15,000 people. (Note: This record still stands in 2024)

1777 The year wheat was first planted (as a hobby crop) in the United States.

1928 The year pre-sliced bread was invented in Chillicothe, Missouri, after being worked on for 16 years.

12.6 The grams of protein in a 3.5 ounce serving of hard red winter wheat, almost equal to the grams of protein in the same serving of soybeans.

10 The years a family of four could live off the bread produced by one acre of wheat.

6 The number of wheat classifications: hard red winter, hard red spring, soft red winter, durum (hard), hard white, soft white.

1.25-2 The hours it takes for Saccharomyces cerevisiae (common bread yeast) to double in numbers, making it easily cultured.

1 A single loaf of bread, when partaken at Communion, is a powerful symbol of Christian unity: "Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all share the one loaf" (1 Cor. 10:17).

An issue of National Geographic explored how sharing food together has always been part of the human story. The article points to a cave near Tel Aviv where there is evidence of ancient meals prepared at an hearth, the oldest ever found, where diners gathered to eat together. In the cave archeologists found a circular loaf of bread with scoring marks, baked to be divided.

The article continues:

"To break bread together," a phrase as old as the Bible, captures the power of a meal to forge relationships, bury anger, provoke laughter. Children make mud pies, have tea parties, trade snacks to make friends, and mimic the rituals of adults. They celebrate with sweets from the time of their first birthday, and the association of food with love will continue throughout life—and in some belief systems, into the afterlife. … Even when times are tough, the urge to celebrate endures. In the Antarctic in 1902, during Robert Falcon Scott's Discovery expedition, the men prepared a fancy meal for Midwinter Day, the shortest day and longest night of the year. Hefty provisions had been brought on board. Forty-five live sheep were slaughtered and hung from the rigging, frozen by the elements until it was time to feast. The cold, the darkness, and the isolation were forgotten for a while. "With such a dinner." Scott wrote, "we agreed that life in the Antarctic Regions was worth living."

If you're like most Westerners, you take chocolate for granted. While always a treat, the delicious brown gold is everywhere, relatively cheap and ready to give you a sugar buzz. It's easy to assume that that's the case everywhere—particularly for the workers who grow the cocoa beans. After all, if you lived in a place where chocolate "grew on trees," wouldn't you be sick of the flavor?

But that's not the case. The journey from cocoa pod to Wonka-style chocolate bars is a very long one, and the product is unrecognizable to the workers who harvest the raw materials for chocolate. But a recent viral video shows cocoa farmers in Africa tasting chocolate for the first time. They weren't even sure what their hard-earned crops were even being made into. The look on their faces—pleasure and surprise and "this is so yummy"—is priceless as they taste the fruit of their labor.

Possible Preaching Angle:

It's a sweet illustration of how we can be so close to something wonderful—like the gospel—handling it all the time, but never tasting or benefitting from its end result—salvation, spiritual health, and joy. We can produce without tasting, or feed others without being nourished ourselves.

An estimated sixty six percent of Americans watch TV while eating dinner. Sixty five percent eat lunch at their desk. Twenty percent of meals are eaten in the car. What other things do people do while eating? Walking, riding the subway, talking on the phone, reading a magazine or book, putting on makeup, and walking the dog are common pursuits of those who eat while juggling other tasks.

What's the price tag for our insane busyness and constant multitasking? At least two dozen research studies have shown that eating while distracted leads to overindulgence. But according to a study (2014) published in a journal called Psychological Science, eating while multitasking also dampens our perception of taste. Food tastes blander, we crave stronger flavors (like salt and sugar), and we end up eating more.

The bottom line: when it's time to eat, it's time to eat. Turn off the computer, the iPhone, and the TV. Enjoy the meal, savor every bite, family and friends. Light a candle, put some flowers in a vase and use cloth napkins. Not only will it taste better, you'll eat less.

Possible Preaching Angles: Obviously, this applies to meals, but this same principle could apply to how we celebrate the Lord's Supper. Do we come distracted? Is our celebration of the Lord's Supper a bland experience because we're trying to multitask while we worship?

The Council of Economic Advisers to the President reported, "The largest federally funded study of American teenagers found a strong association between regular family meals (five or more dinners per week with a parent) and academic success, psychological adjustment, and lower rates of alcohol use, drug use, early sexual behavior, and suicidal risks."

In addition to the social and psychological benefits, the research shows that children ages nine to fourteen who have regular dinners with their parents "have more healthful dietary patterns, including more fruits and vegetables, less saturated and trans fat, fewer fried foods and sodas, and more vitamins and other micronutrients." More and more research is showing that family meals also may be one of the most important protective factors in preventing childhood obesity. A study by The Ohio State University found that "pre-school aged children are likely to have a lower risk of obesity if they engage regularly in one or more of … specific household routines," and the first routine mentioned was eating dinner together as a family.

The percentage of disposable personal income Americans spent on food in 1935: 24.2 percent

The percentage of disposable personal income Americans spent on food in 2005: 9.9 percent

The percentage of disposable personal income Americans spent on food in 2022: 11.3 percent

Editor’s Note:

Consumers spent 5.62 percent of their incomes on food at supermarkets, convenience stores, warehouse club stores, supercenters, and other retailers in 2022 and 5.64 percent on food at restaurants, fast-food establishments, schools, and other places offering food away from home. In 2022, the share spent on total food had the sharpest annual increase, 12.7 percent. This followed an 8.2-percent decline, the sharpest annual drop in total food spending since 1967, during the first year of the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020.

The recent volatility in spending was driven by consumers’ sudden drop in eating out at the beginning of the pandemic followed by a return to food-away-from-home purchases as pandemic-related restrictions and concerns eased.

A 21-year-old man was taken to the hospital for treatment of minor injuries after being trapped waist-deep in a vat of chocolate for two hours.

The man, an employee of Debelis Corporation, a company that supplies chocolate ingredients, told police that he stepped into the tank of molten chocolate to unplug it. He became stuck, however, and soon sunk up to his waist in the viscous confection.

The man's coworkers and local police and firefighters tried to pull him loose, but couldn't free him until the chocolate was thinned out. One police captain commented: "It was pretty thick. It was virtually like quicksand."

Vacationing in the British Virgin Islands with his family, magazine editor William Falk found himself longing for a simple life. Gazing across the water, a little island caught his attention. He learned that the population was known for enjoying a carefree lifestyle. Falk decided that's where he wanted to go.

He confessed:

I have no real wants; if anything, my life is too full. "That's precisely the problem," author Gregg Easterbrook says in his new book, The Progress Paradox. Most Americans enjoy a higher standard of living than 99.4 percent of the 80 billion human beings who've ever lived. Yet we're not content. "Our lives are characterized by too much of a good thing." Easterbrook says, "excess at every turn." We're surrounded by so much food that obesity has become a national crisis, are tempted by so much entertainment and information and stuff to buy that we sleep three hours a day less than our grandparents. At times, it leaves you staring at a four-mile-long island on the horizon, wondering what it would be like to chuck it all.

A man should eat and drink beneath his means, clothe himself within his means, and honor his wife above his means.