5 Reasons Why Dinner is the Secret to Longevity

Hola amigos! Welcome to One Small Bite!

Dinner is easily the most common time we congregate with people we know or love. It is the meal that helps us slow down and reflect on the day, and it is also when we relax and unwind from a busy day of work. In this episode we are going to explain how dinner helps us extend out lives, provide opportunity to enhance our health through the emotional and physical needs every human requires.

Highlights of this episode:

• 1. Connection
• 2. Slowing Down
• 3. Refuel, Fuel, and Purpose
• 4. Challenge Comfort Zone
• 5. Creativity/Problem Solving

Episode Show Notes: 

[01:55] Connection
One of the most important reasons why dinner can extend our lives is because it simply affords us time to start and solidify our social connections. I’ve mentioned before how food is experiential, and how we humans are social creatures, and that from the day we are born we are together with someone else. We are social creatures and eating is one of the most essential methods to create deep social bonds. Have that social system, belonging, and being a part of a group helps us in various ways – it provides shelter, safety, job opportunities, and more. Dinner is a time were we can build these social connections. For example, in one meta-analysis study, titled Social Relationships and Mortality Risk: A Meta-analytic Review, published July 2010 in the journal PLoS Medicine, and they found that people with healthy and supportive relationships lived longer, and over the course of the seven year study, the research participants with larger social networks had about a 50% increase in longevity.

In the past I have also talked about the Power 9 from the Blue Zones, which are the 9 comment traits of people that live to be 100 or older, and they include Purpose Down shifting (see below), 80% guide to eating, Plant Slants diets, Wine at Five, The Right Tribe, Loved Ones First and Belonging. I just want to point out the importance of the last three – they are each about connections. Dinner is one of the most common ways we can build and reestablish those important connections.

[09:52] Slowing Down
Dinner will enhance your longevity because it forces you to slow down. Provide you that moment at the end of the day, where you can reflect and possibly relax. Research shows. This is beneficial as. It shows that by slowing down, you allow the brain time and space to catch up to let go of the ruminating thoughts. As I mentioned earlier, you’re having a conversation with someone so you can get those thoughts, feelings, ideas, images out of your head. It really helps you tap into that love center of your body, those kinds of important connections to release endorphins like oxytocin and dopamine which help you feel good. By the way you might have some wine as well at dinner, which is one of the Power 9 from the Blue Zones mentioned above. Slowing down to have dinner offers time to reflect, be more mindful, pay attention to your body, and provide time and space to enhance your creativity (more about that one below).

[12:38] Refuel, Fuel, and Purpose
Hunger is a sign that the body needs to refuel, restore its energy reserves, therefore we do this by having dinner with various food groups, which provide us with nutrients essential for life. Often people think fueling the body in regard to physical activity, which makes sense since we are generally most active during the day when we’re awake. So why do we need to fuel at night? There’s a lot metabolically that’s happening while we’re sleep. The body needs to regenerate new cells, have energy to manage the various systems – cardiovascular, neurological, muscular-skeletal, and more. It recharges our batteries by storing energy in the form of glucose into the muscle and liver as glycogen. We utilize the fat from food hormone production, insulation, for pregnancy, the main sources of fuel for a growing fetus. Fat is also involved in neuro transduction, with more than 90% of your neurobiological function relies on mostly fat. All the nerves throughout the body are covered in with a fat insulation called the myelin sheath. The body because we need eight to 10 hours of fasting time, using about 30 to 40% of that energy and nutrients from dinner.

While food is critical for survival, we also fill ourself emotionally, not just physically. Therefore, we are nourishing ourselves from the sounds of friends, colleagues, or loved ones. Remember the Power 9 from the Blue Zones – Purpose, Loved Ones First, Belonging – this happens to fill us as well.

[17:49] Challenge Comfort Zone
Get out of your comfort zone and try a new food. Different foods provide a variety nutrients that you might have not gotten earlier on the day. But new foods also helps you get out of your comfort zone, and live more fully! It’s the meal most people learn new recipes, and have leftovers. You know, variety is the spice of life. One example can be is to repurpose a salmon dinner into a salmon sandwich for lunch. If you’re like me, you don’t have to heat up or microwave the salmon, just have it cold. Put it on a bun with some spinach, add a little honey and mustard, a slice of tomato and cheese, and you’ve got a nice new lunch meal. One of the other reasons why I find this so important is because it challenges you, it helps you get out of that comfort zone. Getting stuck in the comfort zone is one of the challenges that I see with a lot of clients. Yes, the comfort zone allows us conveniences in life that help us get things done, but they become a problem. [22:31] Creativity/Problem Solving

[22:31] Creativity/Problem Solving
The fifth reason why dinner is the secret to longevity is because this is the time of day where we tend to solve problems and we also become more creative. When we have dinner with others we bounce ideas off each other, get feedback, which can help us see things in a different way. Problem solving is also a creative approach to slowing down and allow our minds to start opening more to possibilities we might not have otherwise been aware. Yes, it may be slightly easier for an extrovert, but introverts don’t like being alone any more than an extrovert. Introvert recharge their emotional and physical batteries with close intimate connections, and what better way to do that than sharing a delicious meal with someone else?

Resources:

• Power 9 Blue Zones
• PLoS Medicine Journal, Julianne Holt-Lunstad, Timothy B. Smith, J. Bradley Layton: Social Relationships and Mortality Risk: A Meta-analytic Review, Jul 27, 2010, Vol 7, Issue 7
• Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health: An Active Social Life May Help You Live Longer
• JAMES S. HOUSEKARL R. LANDISAND DEBRA UMBERSON Social Relationships and Health; Science, Jul 29, 1988, Vol 241, Issue 4865, pp 540-545
• Stanford Medicine: The Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education: Connectedness & Health: The Science of Social Connection

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Chop the diet mentality; Fuel Your Body; and Nourish Your Soul!