Dining Alone

[Sakkarin Profile]

Intriguing article on "Eating alone". Haven't read it completely yet, just plonked it here to come back to later. May deserve a thread?

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyl ... -our-diets

[Stokey Sue Profile]

Intriguing article on "Eating alone". Haven't read it completely yet, just plonked it here to come back to later. May deserve a thread?

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyl ... -our-diets

Yes worth a thread, I thought it was interesting but missed a few tricks

[strictlysalsaclare Profile]

I thought that Eating Alone article was worth a read as well. Although I am married, Mr Strictly does shift work, and works alternate weekends. I do enjoy these 'Home Alone Food' days because i can indulge myself in the kinds of things that don't suit both of us for whatever reason.

[jeral Profile]

Intriguing article on "Eating alone". Haven't read it completely yet, just plonked it here to come back to later. May deserve a thread?

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyl ... -our-diets

The article hasn't swayed me from thinking that people will eat more or less than they need compensating sooner or later whatever the companionship environment. Such studies would I imagine find it impossible to gauge the healthiness of the multitudinous foods eaten - for example, perhaps opulent on the occasional night out or "always more, or less, healthy" if home alone, or as a family eater partaking perhaps obligatorily in food offered over which they have no control except take or leave.

The relevance of eating more or less is significant surely depending on what one is eating regularly or consistently.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

The article seems to me to assume that people eat more when dining solo because of a lack of observers to shame you into eating less

I find I tend to eat more when eating alone at home than when there are others present simply because I don’t use serving dishes when alone, so I put the theoretical whole portion on my plate. And once it’s there, I tend to eat it. I am quite careful about portion sizes, but there is always that tendency not to leave a quantity of leftovers too small to be useful

And apart from the dreaded single ready meal, given that there are so many small households, it’s shockingly difficult to buy ingredients in small amounts rather than “bargain” multipacks.

[Renee Profile]

I always cook for one and am usually very controlled except when it comes to roast potatoes!

[Alexandria Profile]

Sakkarin,

I enjoyed the article on Eating Alone.

I do enjoy eating lunch alone at home or
in a restaurant or bar, from time to time.

It gives me a chance to read, or catch up
with some professional projects like my newsletter,
proof read, family, planning events,
and / or just to sit and enjoy my time
for me ..

Have a lovely evening.

[WWordsworth Profile]

Oh dear, where are my specs?
I read it that Member 461 sits in bars doing her family planning.

[Alexandria Profile]

W. Wordsworth,

I sit with a notebook and plan
a variety of things ..

Professional, trips and family weekend
visits etcetra.

I believe you mis-understood me.

Note; There is a comma in between
planning and family .. Meaning visiting
them or seeing them for special festivities.

Not "family planning as in babies" ..
I am in my early 50s ..

Definitely
not Dear .. Two grown married twin Boys
were enough !!

And two grandsons too.
Have a lovely day.

[WWordsworth Profile]

Whew!

[Alexandria Profile]

W. Wordsworth,



Have a lovely weekend !!

[Alexandria Profile]

W. Wordsworth,

As a matter of fact, i had a lovely
lunch by myself today on my roof top
terrace.

Had a lovely salad and sat with my notebook and wrote my
upcoming notes for a profesional trip I am doing
late this month.

Have a lovely evening.

[karadekoolaid Profile]

Oh dear.
I just read another anguished, dystopian article from the Grauniad, this time about eating alone. I read another last week about the terribly inhumane custom of "sexual assault" on people at work: a handshake, a slap on the back, a kiss or, God Forbid, a hug .
Oh dear. I´ve been eating "alone" ( when I was working, or out, or travelling - or when I lived alone) for over 40 years. What´s the problem? Or perhaps it is a local problem.
Oh dear. Go to Italy, or Spain, or Latin America, and you´ll find that "family" is important; and that means eating with the family. Maybe every day, maybe once a week - but it happens. And what´s more, they kiss, hug, slap each other on the back and worry not a jot .
Does this incipient threat to mankind affect us? But of course - we all get fat. And eat snack food.

Sorry for the rant - but articles like this make my blood ( 95% cholesterol, 5% other stuff), boil.

[Gillthepainter Profile Website]

I've read the article a couple of times, and cannot see what it's saying myself.
It's a running narrative of nothing?
And what's that conclusion that dining alone has seen the rise of dips like hooomoooos. Eh?

My dislike personally, is eating in the street. I don't mean sitting in a park or picnicking, I mean people eating a pasty or "one handed food", whilst walking round town and the shops.
Never liked doing that, no matter how hungry I am. I'd have to wait until I got to a chair indoors somewhere.

[Joanbunting Profile]

I'm entirely with Gill on street grazing. You rarely see it here except in the tourist season and that's when the litter arrives too.

I don't think I have eaten alone for years. If I remember rightly when and if I had to I barely ate anything. I have never been a snack nibbler or grazer either. So why am I not pencil slim? Must be the gin M would be given half a chance.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

I don’t think, kka and Gill you see the context the same way as I do

This is how it seems to me

Of course people have always eaten alone when it was more convenient to fit in with working patterns, and some people have lived alone

But two things have changed
1, There are far more single person households than ever before
2. People eat out more, whether they live alone or not

There are 27.2 million households in the UK of which 3.9 million are single people of working age (including me). That’s over 14%. There’s also around the same number of single person households over retirement age, making a total of 7.7 million one person households. That’s 28.3%, over a quarter of all households.

Trouble is, nobody has caught up with this yet. Not retailers, who advertise either Dolmio / Bisto type family meals or Wiltshire Farm Foods type single person ready meals aimed at the infirm elderly. Not restaurants, other than chain or very casual, who except in business locations in London don’t really expect single diners. Not even cookbooks - I bought a book that gave “easy” recipes for packed lunches, but only easy if making 4 identical lunches (I’d assume even in a 4 person family that’s not often required)

I have not had a family meal with my own family since January 2012, and I’ll never have another - my surviving relatives are a few cousins too distant both geographically and emotionally. That’s possibly a little extreme, but I wonder how many of those 7.7 million solos live within Sunday lunching distance of family? Half?

I like eating out in restaurants, probably more than most of my other single friends do, I will organise trips to restaurants but it’s like herding cats, much easier just to go, but I don’t always feel that comfortable doing that.

So that’s where we are. And of course it is affecting the diet and ultimately the health of many singles, and there are enough of us to impact the NHS and social services. I’m ok, I have the time, the inclination, the equipment, the nutritional awareness and the skills to cook healthy meals. Not all of 7.7 illion people do. It’s a big shift in the UK demographic.

[patpoyntz Profile]

I don’t like street grazing either...
I can’t remember ever dining out alone, but I find it a real treat if I’m having a day on my own shopping in Edinburgh, or sometimes Newcastle, and I find somewhere really nice for lunch on my own. I’ve always been well looked after, and it’s a great opportunity to people watch....my second favourite occupation!

[strictlysalsaclare Profile]

I will be having a Home Alone Week from next Monday, but will be going shopping for it this Wednesday. I am therefore needing to think post haste what I am going to treat myself to food-wise! I think there will be a few store-cupboard standby meals during the latter part. It's a good job these are well stocked at the moment, both the cupboard and the freezer.

Mr Strictly is going up to his mum's to sort a few more things out for her. Unfortunately, due to work commitments (another colleague on leave), I will be unable to join him.

[karadekoolaid Profile]

My dislike personally, is eating in the street. I don't mean sitting in a park or picnicking, I mean people eating a pasty or "one handed food", whilst walking round town and the shops.

Hear, hear, Gill. I think it´s an absolutely appalling habit. Every time I go back to Maidstone, there are always gaggles of teenagers, wandering six abreast along the High St, grazing on pies, or pasties, or with their grubby paws wrist-deep in a Mega-Bag of Doritos. " Awright, Jolene - see ya later, mate. I´ll catch up wiv you on Facebook". ( add whiny Kentish accent)

[Gillthepainter Profile Website]

Or the lone barman ramming a fist of crisp into his mouth, then asking "what can I get you?"
You can wash your hands first.
No wonder the beer's flat down south