The convenience food era came with a sad consequence: Food and meals became merely fodder to stop the problem of hunger. And convenience food made it fast and easy to dispense with that inconvenient human need with barely any interaction with foods.

The health movement added another utilitarian layer: Food can be medicine that can prevent heart attacks, diabetes and other uncomfortable conditions.

Now with the anti-aging movement, food is taking on yet another functional purpose as a key factor for increased longevity.

Certainly there’s nothing wrong with using food and meals for helpful things like better health and longer lives. But do these practical objectives keep us from seeing how meals can offer us so much more than just a convenient or optimal combination of foodstuffs? Here are some of many other things that meals give me:

** Surprising bits of JOY as flavorful combinations of food hit my taste buds.
** Yummy COMFORT when a meal has deliciously abated my hunger.
** GRATIFICATION at having created a good meal with my own hands.
** The GOOD FEELING of eating a meal that takes good care of me.
** RELIEF from using my hands for something other than typing on a computer or driving a car
** And the BEAUTY that food adds to my life!

Would love to hear what meals give you–leave a comment!