study finds that eating with the family helps kids stay leaner and healthier. Researchers pooled data from 17 earlier studies and found that children who ate with their families on a regular basis were 24 percent more likely to eat healthy foods that children who rarely ate with their families. They were also less likely to suffer from eating disorders.
Parents can "really understand and identify with" the findings, published on 2 May edition of Pediatrics, said the study's lead author Amber Hammons, research associate postdoctoral fellow at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "We wanted to study the contribution of families in the positive outcomes related to nutrition," said Hammons. "It is important that parents know what they can do, especially with obesity and eating habits, and the role they can play."
Through an Internet search in 2009, researchers at the Family Resiliency Center (Resource Center for the family) found college major studies involving about 183,000 children and adolescents between 3 and 17 years. The nutritional habits and weight of young people and if they had done something bad to control. Those who ate three or more times a week with their families were 12 percent less likely to be overweight than those who ate a little, or no time with their families, and 20 percent less likely to eat sweets, fried foods, soft drinks and other unhealthy foods.
eat together five or more times, reducing the likelihood of poor nutrition in 25 percent, according to a review of eight studies. Children who eat with their families also were 35 percent less likely to have an "eating disorder" to lose weight, such as bingeing, purging, taking diet pills or laxatives, vomiting, skipping meals and smoking.
participants were considered overweight if their body mass index (BMI) was less than 85 percentile, which means they were fatter than 85 percent of children their age. Eating two or more fruits and vegetables every day, and skip the soda, candy and fried foods were included as a measure of nutrition. Although the study suggests that eating together with family confers a benefit "protector" to children, the reasons are unclear. Some possibilities include the value of adult examples to follow and the intervention of adults before the misconduct become ill habits, the study said.
Other research has found that meals prepared at home were more nutritious, including more fruits and vegetables and less fat, sugar and soda.
"We know that meals prepared at home tend to be less heat," said Hammons. However, other factors such as communication during the meal could also contribute to the positive influence of family meals on health, said. "The future direction of research will not examine the amount of food but what makes the lunch is so important," he said.
Another expert, Connie Diekman, director of university nutrition at Washington University in St. Louis, said the study makes "a good description of what research shows in terms of the importance of family meals" on child health. However, he warned about their drawbacks.
"Some of the studies have limitations, including some variability in the collection of nutritional outcomes, diversity of ethnicity and sex, and how they rated the weight studies," Diekman said. But even with these obstacles, the study provides "strong evidence that family meals help to increase the intake of nutrients, weight control, and potentially prevent patterns of eating disorders," Diekman said.
Children may imitate parents, by other research. A survey by the American Association of Professionals in Nutrition (American Dietetic Association Foundation, ADA) found that children identified their parents as their number one role models and said that if their parents eating healthy foods, they also did, Diekman said.
The
authors of this study indicate that physicians should emphasize the value of family meals for patients who have eating disorders or obesity.
Amber Fuentes J. Hammons, Ph.D., postdoctoral research associate, Family Resiliency Center, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Connie Diekman, director of university nutrition, Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., May 2, 2011, Pediatrics
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