What You Really Bring to the Table This Year

Why food, connection, and meaning matter more than ever

As another year draws to a close, Australians instinctively gather. Around outdoor tables, kitchen benches, picnic rugs, and long lunches that stretch into the afternoon. These moments feel simple, but biologically and psychologically, they are anything but.

What you bring to the table this year goes far beyond food.

You bring your nervous system. Your habits. Your stories. Your sense of purpose. And whether you realise it or not, you bring signals that influence the health and wellbeing of everyone sitting with you.

 

 

At Life X DNA®, we see longevity not as a future goal, but as something shaped quietly and repeatedly in moments like these. The Japanese concept of Ikigai has deeply influenced my own thinking here. Not as a trendy framework, but as a lived experience of alignment, contribution, and belonging. Ikigai shows up in the ordinary when we are present enough to notice it.

 

This season offers that opportunity.

A few truths worth sharing between bites

 

If you enjoy conversations that leave people a little more curious than before, science offers some grounding reminders of just how remarkable the human body really is.

Every day, your blood travels a distance equivalent to crossing an ocean. Roughly 19,000 kilometres are covered daily as your heart circulates oxygen, nutrients, immune cells, and signalling molecules through an intricate vascular network. All of it happens quietly, reliably, and without conscious effort.

It is a powerful reminder that health is not built through intensity alone. It is built through consistency.

Your body is also emitting light right now. Human cells release ultra weak light particles called biophotons as a result of metabolic activity. This light is invisible to the naked eye, but it is measurable. Life, quite literally, glows.

Your skin is another quiet example of renewal. Approximately every month, it replaces itself entirely. Over a lifetime, this results in hundreds upon hundreds of full cellular turnovers. Change is not a disruption to biology. It is the default state.

One of the most misunderstood truths about longevity is the role of genetics. While DNA matters, it accounts for only a fraction of long term health outcomes. Roughly three quarters of longevity is influenced by lifestyle, environment, behaviour, and social connection. Your genes provide a blueprint, not a fixed outcome.

This is central to the work we do at Life X DNA. We analyse thousands of genes and millions of variants, not to predict fate, but to empower informed, practical choices.

Even music plays a role. Heart rate, breathing, and blood pressure can subtly synchronise to rhythm and tempo. The body listens long before the mind catches up.

Why shared meals change how we feel

There is a reason meals eaten together feel different to those eaten alone.

When people share food, the body releases oxytocin, a hormone associated with trust, bonding, and emotional safety. At the same time, people unconsciously begin to mirror each other. Posture softens. Chewing rhythms align. Facial expressions subtly match.

This phenomenon, known as behavioural synchrony, helps humans feel connected without needing to articulate it. It is ancient biology doing what it evolved to do.

Research consistently shows that eating together increases trust, cooperation, and emotional closeness more effectively than many other social activities. It is also strongly linked to long term health outcomes. Social connection repeatedly emerges as one of the most protective factors for longevity, often outweighing individual lifestyle factors when studied over decades.

A shared meal is not just nourishment. It is regulation. It is belonging. It is medicine that does not come in a bottle.

Ikigai is not abstract. It is practical.

Ikigai is often presented as a diagram or a destination. In reality, it is lived through small, ordinary actions.

Preparing food with care. Feeling useful. Being listened to. Offering attention instead of distraction. These are not philosophical ideals. They are biological signals of safety, value, and meaning.

From a longevity perspective, purpose is not something found once and held forever. It is reinforced daily through contribution and connection. The body responds accordingly. Stress hormones lower. Inflammatory pathways calm. Immune resilience improves.

In modern life, many of these signals have been eroded. Meals become rushed. Screens fragment attention. Connection becomes passive rather than embodied.

Choosing to sit, eat, talk, and listen is a deliberate act of health optimisation.

What this means moving forward

Longevity is not created in isolation. It is shaped in relationship.

Your nervous system calibrates itself through other people. Your immune system responds to perceived safety. Your metabolism responds to rhythm and routine. Your brain thrives on meaning and belonging.

At Life X DNA, we often say that the majority of longevity remains within your influence – the 30/70 equation. Science supports this. While you cannot change your genes, you can absolutely change how they are expressed.

This season, consider what you bring to the table beyond food.

Bring curiosity rather than judgement. Presence rather than urgency. Stories that remind people their bodies are adaptive, resilient, and intelligent.

Because the future of health will not be built solely through supplements, tests, or technology.

It will be built through connection, purpose, and everyday moments that quietly reinforce why life is worth living.

And sometimes, it starts with simply sitting down together.

 

Stay informed, stay healthy
Robert Van der Moigg
Founder – Life X DNA®