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Families That Eat Dinner Together, Stay Slim Together, Study Finds
Filed under: In The News, Mealtime, Family Time
Kids who ate meals regularly with their family were 24 percent more apt to eat healthy. Credit: Getty Images
A new study published today in Pediatrics, finds kids who ate meals regularly with their family were 24 percent more likely to eat healthy, compared with peers who seldom ate with relatives, according to HealthDay.
"We wanted to look at the family's contribution to positive outcomes as it relates to nutrition," study lead author Amber Hammons, a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, tells the news service. "It's important for parents to know what they can do, especially with obesity and eating habits; they want to know what role they can play."
Researchers looked at studies involving nearly 183,000 kids and teens ranging in age from about 3 to 17, HealthDay reports, examining eating habits, weight and whether they engaged in any eating disorder behavior.
They found children who ate three or more family meals a week were 12 percent less likely to be overweight than those who ate with their families rarely or never, according to the news service, which adds they were also 20 percent less likely to eat sweets, fried foods, soda and other food lacking in the healthy department.
Eating with Mom and Dad also reduced "disordered eating behaviors" -- think binging and purging, skipping meals, taking diet pills or laxatives and smoking -- HealthDay reports.
"We know that meals prepared at home are more likely to be less calorie-dense," Hammons tells the news service, but she adds that communication during a family meal could also influence healthy eating. "The future direction for research will not be looking at quantity of meals but at what is making meal time so important."
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
5-02-2011 @ 3:04PM
Margaret Payne said...I give my parents credit for making sure we regularly ate together - not in front of the tv, but at the table sitting together visiting when I was a kid. Now in my own household as an adult, my husband and I make it a regular thing to sit down and have family dinners together too. There was a really nice list on HttP://savecreatively.com/Top10TipsHowToEatRight.aspx for the top 10 tips to eat right and to do so on a budget. I'm always looking for new ideas so I thought it was a nice find!
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5-04-2011 @ 6:08PM
Family Resilency Center said...The Pediatrics article demonstrates that sharing family meals can have health promoting benefits. However, it’s not always easy to get everyone to the table for a stress free mealtime. The Family Resiliency Center at the University of Illinois (where the Pediatrics study was conducted) has started an initiative to offer tips for parents to manage common mealtime challenges like sibling conflict. You can check out the Mealtime Minutes initiative that includes a public service announcement, mealtime conversation cards, tips generated by parents, and a sign up list to learn more at familyresiliency.illinois.edu/MealtimeMinutes. Additional Mealtime Minutes will be forthcoming with input from real families with real solutions.
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