All In The Family Why do all family functions seem to revolve around food?

I started out just thinking it was me. Surely I was the only one who has a family that loves to eat as much as my family does. Surely I was the only one whose every family function somehow revolves around food. Right?

Wrong. Oh-so-very wrong.

Why is it that so many families find it necessary to bond over food? I swear every fun family I know loves to eat and has a bulk of memories centered on some type of eating activity!

For one close friend, it’s huge family dinners at the lake complete with meat on the grill and delicious desserts. For another, it’s making homemade ravioli and indulging in a huge Italian feast. And don’t even get me started on all the favorite “mom” recipes I have for each and every one of my best friends.

Now, I don’t want to act like food is some sort of enemy. Obviously we all need food to survive. However, for people like me who can’t seem to get it together when there are full-fat, yummy family recipes in sight, food is my ultimate mortal enemy.

This was all brought to my attention the other day when I was talking with my grandfather. He and my grandmother are taking a few months off from the Florida heat and are home visiting. Last week I was visiting with them on a random weeknight, and when I told him it was time for dinner, he rolled his eyes and said, “That’s all we ever do around here: eat and sleep.”

Of course this made me laugh out loud at the time, but the more I thought about it, he is totally right! In fact, I’m having them over to my place for dinner tonight!
Sure, we have family traditions that don’t center on food, but the bulk of my family activities somehow involve eating. It’s no wonder America is overweight! We are all satisfied by good family comfort food and awesome family traditions revolving around it.

As we round out summer and head toward the season that makes us all want to hibernate, I challenge you to start some family traditions that don’t center on eating and food. Don’t lose touch with the ones that do –– or mom’s secret family recipes –– but remember that we need to show our families how much we love them. Healthy living will keep them all around a lot longer, and we all should take care in treating each other to that gift sometimes too.

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by Lindsay Eichelman