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IT’S HARD TO find time to sit down and eat a proper meal, let alone gather your whole brood around the table on a regular basis, but more and more science has shown that sitting down together as a group is good for the health and well-being of everyone in your house.

In a ‘Home Truths’ survey released today by SuperValu today, research shows that:

• Six out of 10 people surveyed believed that eating a meal together is a priority factor in family bonding
• That over half of all Irish families share a meal together five times or more a week
• The Irish mammy is still the top inspiration for home-cooking recipes (43% cite her as their main influence), closely followed by sourcing recipes from the internet)

There have been multiple studies showing the benefits of eating together:

For starters a home-cooked meal tends to be much lower in salt, fat and cost than take-away or eating out. Sharing a family meal has huge psychological benefits - from boosting children’s range of vocabulary to improving family bonding and empathy. 

And lots of meals can be made in 20 minutes or less… sure, your takeaway would be only half way home in that time.

So what’s the best way to get into the habit of eating together en famille?

Here’s a few ideas to get you started -

• eat at the table instead of in front of the television
• leave all technology in another room (17% in the survey said they would like to get rid of all distractions that get in the way of eating together)
• make a fixed time for meal times

but we’re open to suggestion…

So tell us, do you make a point of sitting down and eating with the family?