Family meals keep children slimmer, healthier

Eating meals with their families helps keep children slimmer and healthier.

Previous studies have suggested that family mealtimes may act as a protective factor for many nutritional health related problems during childhood and adolescence, including issues of overweight, unhealthy eating, and disordered eating. Findings have been mixed with some studies reporting strong relations to health outcomes such as obesity, whereas others reporting no relation. These inconsistencies make it difficult to inform parents of the relation between family meals and health outcomes.

Researchers in America pooled data from 17 earlier studies to look at the family's contribution to positive outcomes as it relates to nutrition in children and adolescents. The primary objective was to determine consistency and strength of effects across studies that examined overweight and obese, food consumption and eating patterns, and disordered eating. 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. Through an Internet search in 2009, researchers obtained relevant studies involving almost 183,000 children and teens ranging from roughly 3 to 17 years old. They looked at the youths' eating habits, weight, and whether they did anything harmful to control it.

They found that the frequency of shared family meals was signi?cantly related to nutritional health in children and adolescents. Youngsters who joined family members regularly for meals were 24 percent more likely to eat healthy foods than children who rarely ate with their families. They were also less likely to suffer from eating disorders. Those who ate three or more meals a week with their families were 12 percent less likely to be overweight than those who ate few or no meals with their families, and 20 percent less likely to eat sweets, fried foods, soda, and other unhealthy foods, it was found. Eating five or more meals together reduced the likelihood of poor nutrition by 25 percent, an analysis of eight of the studies revealed. Children who ate with their families also were 35 percent less likely to engage in disordered eating behaviours aimed at losing weight, such as binge-eating, purging, taking diet pills or laxatives, vomiting, skipping meals or smoking.

Participants were deemed overweight if they had a body mass index (BMI) at or above the 85th percentile, meaning that they were heavier than 85 percent of children their age.

Eating two or more fruits and vegetables daily, and skipping soda, candy and fried foods were included as a measure of healthy nutrition. While the study suggests that eating together as a family confers a protective benefit on children, the reasons for that were unclear. Some possibilities included the value of adult role models, and adult intervention before poor behaviours became bad habits. For children or adolescents with disordered eating, mealtimes may provide a setting in which parents can recognize early signs and take steps to prevent detrimental patterns from turning into full-blown eating disorders.

Other research has found that meals prepared at home are more nutritious, with more fresh fruit and vegetables, and less fat, sugar and soda. But other factors such as communication during meal time might also drive the positive influence of family meals on health.

The study provides strong indications that shared family meals help boost nutritional intake, control body weight, and potentially prevent disordered eating patterns. Children may imitate their parents. A survey by the American Dietetic Association Foundation found that children identified their parents as their number one role models and claimed that if their parents ate healthier foods, they would too. Doctors should emphasise the value of family meals (3 or more family mealtimes per week) for patients struggling with eating disorders or obesity.