Girls who eat with their families less likely to do extreme diets

Yet again, more research which shows the benefits of families eating together.

Teens who frequently (five or more times per week) eat together with the rest of their family are less likely to use extreme methods — such as binge eating and self-induced vomiting — to control their weight five years later.

That’s according to research by Dianne Neumark-Sztainer, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Minnesota and lead investigator of Project Eating Among Teens (Project EAT) at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health.

The same doesn’t appear to be true for boys.

“Health care professionals have an important role to play in reinforcing the benefits of family meals, helping families set realistic goals for increasing family meal frequency given schedules of adolescents and their parents; exploring ways to enhance the atmosphere at family meals with adolescents; and discussing strategies for creating healthful and easy-to-prepare family meals,” said Neumark-Sztainer. “Schools and community organizations should also be encouraged to make it easier for families to have shared mealtimes on a regular basis.”

(Via Insight News)

September 24: Family Day - A Day To Eat Together With Your Children

I’ve written before about the importance of families eating together whenever they can. It can bond the family together, aid communication, and could help teens avoid social problems, amongst many other benefits.

The Kroger Company has partnered with The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse to encourage families to share a meal together this coming Monday, 24th September, to celebrate Family Day: A Day To Eat Together With Your Children.

Their research consistently suggests that the more children eat together with their parents, the less likely they are to take drugs, drink, or smoke. Of course, it takes more than eating together to achieve that, but it’s a great reason to start.

They offer six tips for encouraging and keeping shared mealtimes:

1. Start the pattern of family meals when children are young.
2. Encourage children to create menu ideas and participate in meal preparation.
3. Talk about what happened in everyone’s day:  school, work, extracurricular activities and current events.
4. Keep conversation positive and make sure everyone gets a chance to speak.
5. Turn off the TV and let your answering machine answer calls during family meals.
6. After the meal, serve dessert or play a board game to encourage the family to continue the conversation.

“Sharing meals together as a family is a simple, powerful and effective tool to help children and teens avoid risky behaviors. Family meals are an ideal time to talk with your children and listen to what’s on their mind. We support Family Day because building strong, healthy families is at the core of our business,” said David B. Dillon, Kroger chairman and chief executive officer.

In related news, TV Land will “go dark” between 6pm and 7pm (ET/PT) on the day, to encourage families to dine together.

Viewers tuning in to The Family Day Dinner Hour will see photos submitted to TVLand.com of various families sharing meals and spending time together. Packaged like a scrapbook, the hour will display montages of the photos along with Family Day graphics, all set to easy-listening Americana and Jazz music.

www.casafamilyday.org

Diets of children could fatten their parents, study suggests

Whilst many studies of obesity in children focus on how their life is influenced by their parents, a new study reverses this thinking and instead looks at what influence kids may have on their parents:

“Parents with children are likely to be susceptible in their food choices to both the marketing of convenience in food choices as well as indirectly to the marketing directed at their children,” wrote the study’s authors, Dr. Helena Laroche of the University of Iowa and Dr. Matthew Davis of the University of Michigan Health System.

Read more