為什么一起吃飯的人越來越少了呢?

Surveys indicate that a third of Britons regularly eat on their own. OpenTable, an online restaurant booking app, found that solo dining in New York increased by 80% between 2014 and 2018.

調(diào)查顯示，三分之一的英國人經(jīng)常一個人吃飯。線上餐廳預(yù)定應(yīng)用OpenTable發(fā)現(xiàn)，2014年至2018年間，紐約獨自用餐的人數(shù)增加了80%。

And in Japan, the world capital of solo dining, a trend for “low interaction dining” has taken off. Restaurants are opening which facilitate the ultimate solo dining experience: passing bowls of noodles through black curtains into individual booths.

在“全球獨自用餐之都”日本，“低互動用餐”已成為一種趨勢。目前日本有為獨自用餐的人提供最佳體驗的餐廳：顧客點的面通過黑色的簾子被遞入單獨的隔間。

Is this a worrying trend? We think so. Research is revealing the negative impacts of eating alone, which has been found to be linked to a variety of mental and physical health conditions, from depression and diabetes to high blood pressure.

這種趨勢令人擔(dān)憂嗎?我們是這樣認(rèn)為的。研究顯示，獨自用餐有諸多負(fù)面影響，它與抑郁、糖尿病、高血壓等各種心理和身體的健康狀況有關(guān)。

So it’s cheering that hundreds of food sharing initiatives have sprung up around the world which aim to improve food security and sustainability while combating loneliness.

因此，世界各地出現(xiàn)了數(shù)百個美食共享倡議很令人欣慰，這些倡議旨在提高食品安全和可持續(xù)性并與孤獨感作斗爭。

There’s London’s Casserole Club, for example, whose volunteers share extra portions of home-cooked food with people in their area who aren’t always able to cook for themselves.

例如，倫敦砂鍋俱樂部的志愿者就與當(dāng)?shù)啬切┎荒茏约鹤鲲埖娜朔窒眍~外的家常菜。

Or South Africa’s Food Jams, social gatherings in which participants are paired up, preferably with strangers, and given a portion of the meal to prepare.

還有南非的美食聯(lián)歡會，參與者組成搭檔，最好是與陌生人一起，來共同準(zhǔn)備聚會上的部分美食。

Such initiatives offer lessons of all kinds to those thinking about how our food systems need to change. This is why we have been researching them, in our several ways, for the last few years.

對于那些在考慮應(yīng)如何改變我們的食品系統(tǒng)的人而言，這些倡議都是值得借鑒的。這也是我們在過去的幾年里一直在用不同的方式研究它們的原因。

So why has eating together declined? There are a variety of reasons. Authors such as Michael Pollan argue that it is due to the general undervaluing of home-based labor, including cooking.

那么，為什么一起吃飯的人越來越少了呢?原因有很多種。邁克爾·波倫等作者認(rèn)為，這是因為人們普遍低估了做飯等居家式勞作的價值。

The widening of the workforce, which brought many women out of the kitchen and into the workplace during the 20th century, also contributed.

20世紀(jì)勞動力的擴大使許多女性走出廚房，進入工作場所，這也是原因之一。

Meanwhile, the growth in insecure and inconsistent working patterns among a growing proportion of the population also discourage meals eaten communally.

與此同時，越來越多的人缺乏安全感，工作模式也不穩(wěn)定，這也阻礙了人們一起用餐。

And an increasing number of people live alone, which certainly does not help.

而且越來越多的人獨自生活，這肯定無濟于事。