Individuals who eat with friends and family experience less stress: Study

How often do you have your meals with your family members Do you prioritise such family dinners amid a hectic schedule Well a new survey has revealed that eating together with your friends and family can prove to be beneficial for your physical and mental healthLifetime risk of heart disease and stroke can increase due to chronic and constant stress but a new survey from the American Heart Association has revealed that regular mealtime with others could be a simple solution to help manage stressOf the 1000 US adults nationwide surveyed in September 2022 for the American Heart Associationrsquos Healthy for Good movement by Wakefield Research the vast majority 84 per cent say they wish they could share a meal more often with loved ones and nearly all parents report lower levels of stress among their family when they regularly connect over a mealTo make mealtime togetherness a little easier and help people claim the heart mind and body benefits that go with it the American Heart Association will share practical and budgetfriendly meal tips each Tuesday through December People can follow TogetherTuesday on social media or text 2gether to 51555 to get tips sent directly to their phoneldquoSharing meals with others is a great way to reduces stress boost selfesteem and improve social connection particularly for kidsrdquo said Erin Michos MD MHS American Heart Association volunteer associate director of preventive cardiology at Johns Hopkins and a coauthor of the American Heart Associationrsquos statement on Psychological Health Wellbeing and the MindHeartBody Connection ldquoChronic 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 possiblerdquoConnecting with friends family coworkers and neighbours benefits people beyond stress relief In fact the survey found 67 per cent of people say sharing a meal remind them of the importance of connecting with other people and 54 per cent say it reminds them to slow down and take a breakThose surveyed say they are more likely 59 per cent to make healthier food choices when eating with other people but have difficulty aligning schedules with their friends or family to do so according to the survey Overall respondents reported eating alone about half of the timeldquoWe know itrsquos 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 thererdquo Michos said ldquoSet a goal to gather friends family or coworkers for one more meal together each week If you canrsquot get together in person think about how you can share a meal together over the phone or a computerrdquoThe American Heart Associationrsquos survey also identified the majority 65 per cent of adults say they are at least somewhat stressed and more than a quarter 27 per cent are extremely or very stressed Nearly 7 in 10 69 per cent of survey respondents who are employed full or parttime said they would feel less stressed at work if they had more time to take a break and share a meal with a coworkerAlso read Experiencing nightmares Herersquos what you need to know to get quality sleepThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever