Hello and welcome to Zoe Shorts, the Biteside podcast where we discuss one topic around science and nutrition.

I'm Jonathan Wolf and as always I'm joined by Dr Sarah Berry and today's subject is social eating.

It's reasonable to think that the food you eat is the only factor in how healthy your diet is right.

But what we're seeing now is that that's not strictly true. It turns out how you eat, including who you eat with, might be important too.

So Sarah, are you saying that eating with other people could be better for you than eating alone?

There's some surprising evidence showing that social eating may have a whole range of emotional and physical benefits.

Believe it or not, there's some evidence that eating together can even make food taste better.

Amazing.

So is that too good to be true? Let's dig into it and find out.

Picture two kitchen tables. It's an average Wednesday night.

One table is covered in dishes of delicious food, the whole family's gathered around chatting and enjoying the meal.

On the second table, there's one solitary figure scrolling on their phone at the same time as their eating.

And just listening to this, I know which table I'd rather be at.

Me too, but eating alone is on the increase in a UK survey from 2017 showed that a third of weekday evening meals are eaten in isolation.

And the average adult eats 10 out of 21 meals alone every week.

And similarly in the US about a quarter of dinners are also eaten alone.

Now that's likely because of the pressure of busy lifestyles.

So I just think about last night, you know, my wife was out, so I was eating on my own.

There's an aging population, so increasing number of people who may be living on their own.

And just the general increase in single person households.

And let me guess, despite all of this actually eating alone is the one that's bad for you.

It's been associated with disordered eating behaviors, depressive symptoms, obesity and high blood pressure.

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