“Food is symbolic of love when words are inadequate. Sharing a meal with a friend is a way to nourish not only our bodies but also our souls.“

Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher (American essayist, 1908 – 1992)

We all know that tasty, healthy food can make us happy—that’s hardly a revelation. There’s no shortage of studies to back it up, either.
But when I recently read the World Happiness Report 2025, I was surprised to discover just how much another factor influences our happiness while eating. (If you haven’t seen the report—which is published each year by the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford—I’ve linked it below.)

One of this year’s questions was: How important are shared meals for our happiness?

In many countries, eating together is woven into the fabric of daily life. I think back fondly to my time in Barcelona, where cenas—big family-and-friends dinners—were a regular occurrence. I always felt so at home when I was part of the group. By contrast, in my early days there, I remember sitting alone in a tapas bar and feeling distinctly isolated and out of place.

We all know the big ritual meals of faith—the Jewish Shabbat dinner, the breaking of the fast in Ramadan—where eating together takes center stage. Even our languages preserve this connection between food and fellowship: companion in English, copain in French, and compagno in Italian all trace back to the Latin cum (with) and panis (bread). In Chinese, the word huǒbàn (伙伴) for companion is thought to come from “fire mate”—someone with whom you share food around a campfire.

The World Happiness Report found a strong link between shared meals and the happiness they bring. The effect is even greater in cultures where eating together is less common. In Latin America, for instance, more than two-thirds of all meals are shared. In Japan and South Korea—where the suicide rate is highest among OECD countries—it’s at the opposite extreme. There, it’s not unusual for the only dinner companion to be a mobile phone.

The trend isn’t limited to East Asia. In the US, Australia, and Germany, solo dining is also on the rise. In the US, 18- to 24-year-olds are now 90% more likely to eat all three daily meals alone than they were in 2003.

For those “solo eaters,” even one shared meal makes a difference: they report feeling happier, less stressed, and less sad that day. With more shared meals, the effect grows—sometimes equating to the happiness boost of doubling one’s income. That’s quite something, isn’t it?

The clear message from the report is that social interaction over food enhances well-being.

But there’s another dimension. Just a few days ago, during an overnight stay at a Buddhist temple in Korea, I learned that happiness from eating together doesn’t have to involve conversation. Monks there eat in silence, yet describe their shared meals as deeply connecting and essential.

In that silence, space opens for a deeper kind of communication—not through thoughts and words, but through presence. It’s a form of living meditation.
(Sadly, the World Happiness Report hasn’t yet measured that.)

So whether you’re looking forward to lively conversation or prefer to savor your meal in meditative quiet—if you don’t already have a companion for your next lunch, maybe now’s the perfect time to invite someone dear to you.

Here’s to delicious meals, shared in good company.

With love,
Heiko

World Happiness Report 2025

(External Link)