Véronique Côté, mother of two children aged 10 and 12, believes that the evening meal with the family is an important meeting. On average per day, the family spends 1 hour 20 minutes together at the table, and on weekends, almost 2 hours. “The four of us eat together in the morning and evening, but the children’s homework and sports activities sometimes disrupt the schedule,” she confides. We try to meet every evening around 6 p.m., at the table. It’s a ritual, we discuss school, the recipes we want to try. It’s a moment where there are real exchanges. »
In Europe, the ritual lasts even longer. The big difference between North America and Mediterranean countries is commensality, a term that means sharing meals.
“The meal is two things: it’s food and it’s sociability. The meal is a moment of sociability par excellence and the importance of social ties is stronger in Mediterranean-type countries, such as France, Italy and Spain,” explains Jean-Pierre Lemasson, specialist in the history of Quebec gastronomy and retired professor from UQAM.
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Jean-Pierre Lemasson, retired professor from UQAM, specialist in the history of Quebec gastronomy
The meal is a moment of family reunion around the table.
Jean-Pierre Lemasson, specialist in the history of Quebec gastronomy and retired professor from UQAM
“The French gastronomic meal is listed as a UNESCO heritage site because there is a real culinary culture, it is part of the sacred in everyday life,” he continues. We cannot imagine life without moments spent at the table. Sharing in conviviality is essential to Latin cultures. The pleasure of sociability at the table is very different in Anglo-Saxon countries, even if Quebec is halfway there. Here, we get together at the table more quickly in the evening, and family rhythms are different when we have teenagers. »
Sociology teacher-researcher Philippe Cardon recalls that shared meals are institutionalized in France, from early childhood.
There is this idea that meals shared as a family are a moment of discussion and education, a moment where we transmit values.
Philippe Cardon, professor and researcher in sociology at the University of Lille
“We are a country where shared meals are institutionalized in families, but also at school with school canteens and even in companies where there are also canteens, which explains the time spent at the table. Around 12:30 or 1 p.m., the whole of France eats, and in the provinces 65% of employees return to eat at home at lunchtime, which is enormous. Meal time organizes other social times and structures working time,” analyzes this Lille university professor.
Lack of time, a problem
Nathalie Lachance, sociologist of food, emphasizes that the relationship with time “is not the same in North America, just like the relationship with food”. “We eat in our car or between the children’s different activities, and at lunchtime, we also eat much more quickly in front of our computer, which is not the case in Mediterranean countries,” she observes. We have a faster pace of life, we don’t chat for hours while having coffee, we organize meetings at lunchtime while eating and we are always chasing time! »
An opinion shared by Jean-Claude Moubarac, associate professor and researcher in the nutrition department of the University of Montreal.
We are obsessed with the lack of time, we want to do things quickly and we forget the essentials, because taking the time to eat is important. There is a devaluation of the act of eating, we eat anything, as quickly as possible, and we lose the benefits of food and sociability.
Jean-Claude Moubarac, associate professor and researcher in the nutrition department of the University of Montreal
“In our schools, I read things that chill me. If we look at the time and space allocated to the lunch break, sometimes students have 15 minutes to eat… in a corridor! We cannot develop a food culture in this context,” laments Mr. Moubarac.
He adds that Canadians are large consumers of ultra-processed products, associated with unhealthy diets. These choices have an effect on the time spent at the table, on our physical and mental health and on our social life. Eating then becomes a very individual act. We lose the benefits of sharing a meal. He gives as an example his Brazilian university colleagues who do not understand why North Americans organize dinner conferences, because the idea of eating and attending a conference at the same time is indecent for them! “It shows the importance of food culture, because they take the time to eat without doing anything else while we often eat in a hurry! »
The other big difference is that eating is not our main activity. “Which is very different from the French who dedicate themselves fully to it,” observes Marie Plessz, research director at INRAE, the National Institute for Research on Agriculture, Food and the Environment. The starter-main course-dessert structure determines the sharing of meals, even if on a daily basis, dinner will consist of a main course and a small dessert (a dairy product). “In the evening, it’s a main course, like in the Anglo-Saxon model of which Canada is a part. But the fact remains that the family evening meal is a very strong ritual passed down from generation to generation. Even if he is caught in front of the television, there will be exchanges,” she analyzes.
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Public health measure?
Should we promote family meals as a public health measure? This is the question posed by Jean-Claude Moubarac. He cites a study on the benefits of shared family meals in Quebec, on healthy lifestyle habits, development, conversation and socialization, particularly among adolescents. “You shouldn’t see family dinner in too romantic a way, I have three children, and sometimes at the table we argue, but relationships are forged. It’s a special time we spend with family. I spend an hour and a quarter a day at the table and I consider myself someone who values cooking! », Says the professor.
“Food culture is transmitted from a young age,” adds Jean-Claude Moubarac. We can involve children in preparing meals, so that they understand what they lose when they don’t take the time to eat. In Quebec we recognize that cooking is important, we have a culinary tradition, but we are increasingly influenced by our American neighbors, whose capitalism pushes us towards performance, towards competition, and we have not no more time to eat or talk! »