Benefits Of Eating Outdoors For Your Family

*This is a collaborative post.

We all look forward to ‘alfresco’ dining, especially in those lovely summer months. Something about barbeques, sunshine and loved ones conjures up a warm fuzzy feeling inside. While eating outdoors is a great fun family activity, it also has a great impact on your health! Here are five great benefits of eating outdoors for your family. 

Mood Booster

Ever noticed how a little addition of a small potted plant or a candle can affect your mood when you are indoors? Well, when you are dining outside you have all of nature surrounding you, which can be a great natural soother. This can have some amazing effects on you both physically and mentally, one being decreasing the level of stress hormones in your body. When you are less stressed, you’re less anxious and inevitably happier, thereby uplifting your mood. Plus, being outside in the natural light can certainly boost your Vitamin D levels, which is great for your immune system.

Keeps You Active

While you are cooking or eating outdoors, your children can be playing and running around in the garden, or even exercising on some outdoor gym equipment. This will surely help them burn off any excess energy, and work up an appetite for the lovely meal cooking away. With the kids staying energetic and playful it also keeps them busy without getting bored and impatient for their food. You can also join in the fun with some family garden games to keep you active and energised. For those hot summer days, even though sun cream is a great form of protection for children, having a dedicated shaded area in your garden can give you some added peace of mind. This way it doesn’t interrupt the children’s playtime but also keeps them protected from any harsh strong UV rays.

Socialising 

A great way to get your children off the sofa and off their phones and the telly is by being outside! And if food is involved then no doubt your kids will be there too! Eating outdoors is a great way to re-connect with your family and spend quality time that sometimes is hard to achieve due to everyone’s busy schedule. You can create a lovely sheltered outdoor dining area, so regardless of the weather you don’t have to worry about rushing back inside. Plus, you can ensure the area is not only functional but stylish too, so when you have guests, you can wow them with your aesthetically pleasing outdoor space.

Fresh Air

When fresh air hits your face no doubt it does wonders to your mind and body. After some hard and testing times during covid, everyone has needed a boost to their outdoor time. Long and increased periods of being inside, breathing in the same stale air can certainly make you depressed and dampen your mood. Yet simply stepping outside can have the complete opposite effect. The oxygen you breathe in helps your brain to function, and it also affects your Serotonin levels – which promotes a sense of happiness. So, getting outdoors more can have a great impact on your health both physically and mentally.

Better Food Experience

Have you ever noticed that when you are stressed, your food doesn’t taste very nice? Yet there is something about feeling relaxed and happy outside that goes hand in hand with your tastebuds. Your sense of smell is a huge component of taste too, that’s why you can’t taste food properly when you have a stuffy nose. With the air being fresher outside there is a lower volume of scents clogging up your smell receptors, enabling you to really taste the intensity of your flavours in your food! Additionally, being in a relaxed outdoor space can take away some of the pressure from your children having to “sit nicely” like they would have to at the dining room table. They might even be more inclined to try out some new foods, which is a great way to introduce some healthier options if they have previously been a bit hesitant. 

So, as you can see there are a multitude of benefits to dining outdoors. Hopefully the above points have given you a different perspective on outdoor eating with your family. Not only is it fun, but it is oh so good for your mind, body and soul.