This Mental Health Awareness Week, let’s Make Dinnertimes Matter

Shared meals have associated benefits for our Mental Health & Wellbeing

This week is #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek – an annual campaign that has been running for over two decades – led by the charity Mental Health Foundation to get the whole of the UK focused on achieving good mental health.

There are many things we can all be doing to better look after our mental health, and one of them is eating together with other people. Research has shown that more shared meals are associated with higher emotional health and life satisfaction[1] and that families who feel closer together also share more frequent family meals[2]. It has also suggested that teenagers who share more dinners at home are three times more likely to feel family support.[3] Furthermore, the Mental Health Foundation has also observed that shared mealtimes support our mental health by providing a ‘sense of rhythm and regularity’ in our lives.[4]

This is certainly true for me. It’s always busy in the Topalian household – from work and school, to tennis practice and ferrying the kids around to various places – and it can be easy for dinner to be squeezed between everything else. However, part of our weekly routine includes taking the time to eat together. For us, it’s every Monday evening where we sit down as a family - it’s my favourite night of the week.

As the General Manager of Mars Food UK, I feel especially proud that products like our Ben’s Original rice and Dolmio sauces provide UK households with quick shortcuts to cook a healthy delicious meal – and have time left to spend enjoying it with the people who matter most to them.  

At Mars Food, we believe that Dinnertime Matters.

We’ve been running this initiative for three years, in line with our Purpose to deliver Better Food Today for A Better World Tomorrow. When we started out on this journey, we knew that shared mealtimes were important, but not everyone was able to experience them.

During the development of our Dinnertime Matters report published at the end of last year, we learnt just how beneficial sitting around a table together can be to health, mental health and wider wellbeing. For the report we interviewed charities, NGOs and academics focused on exploring the ways shared mealtimes can benefit people’s lives, and how they should be encouraged and enabled. The benefits were clear. Sharing a meal plays an important part in bringing members of a household or family together, helping people of different ages to bond, and boosting wellbeing.

The theme of this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week is Loneliness

Significantly, in line with this theme, our report demonstrated the role that shared meals play in tackling loneliness. Shared mealtimes can help combat loneliness, especially among those who live alone, and be a reason for people to come together While many of us enjoyed many more shared dinners during the UK lockdowns, one of the sad realities of the COVID-19 pandemic has been that many more people have become isolated from others. Shared meals, whether hosted at home or in a setting provided by community-based charities, can help combat this.

Equally, it’s clear how many significant barriers there are to shared meals, from poverty and isolation to lack of cooking skills and equipment, or simply conflicting schedules. This is a reality facing families across Britain – meaning far too many people are missing out on the positives of sharing a meal. That’s why we’re delighted to be supporting our charity partners, like the Trussell Trust, who do amazing things in local communities to support people facing hardship.

This Mental Health Awareness Week, take the time to Switch Off For Dinner

We know that businesses have a role to play in facilitating shared mealtimes, and we’re proud to play our part to help more people feel the benefits of coming together with loved ones to share a meal.

Sunday 15 May marks International Day of Families, a day dedicated to promoting awareness of issues and needs of families across the world. As part of this, we’re encouraging our Mars Food Europe Associates to switch off early for dinner – and I’d extend that invite to you too. Family means something different to everyone, but whether it’s your parents, your partner, your friends, your children or even your pets, we encourage you to enjoy a shared meal with the people in your life who matter most to you.

#mentalhealth #sharedmealtimes #MarsFood #DinnertimeMatters

[1] Elgar, F. J., Craig, W., & Trites, S. J. (2013). Family Dinners, Communication, and Mental Health in Canadian Adolescents. Journal of Adolescent Health, 52(4), 433–438. doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2012.07.012

 [2] Welsh EM, French SA, Wall M. Examining the Relationship Between Family Meal Frequency and Individual Dietary Intake: Does Family Cohesion Play a Role? Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior Volume 43, Number 4, 2011

 [3] Fulkerson JA, Story M, Mellin A, Leffert N, Neumark-Sztainer D, French SA. Family dinner meal frequency and adolescent development: relationships with developmental assets and high-risk behaviors. J Adolesc Health. 2006;39(3):337–345.

 [4] ‘Mealtimes and mental health’, Mental Health Foundation, https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/a-to-z/d/diet-and-mental-health