"Come and get it!" A phrase historically proclaiming that the communal
meal is ready, is heard all too infrequently among contemporary American
households, especially as children get older. Indeed, over 40% of the
typical American food budget is spent on eating out, with family meals
often being relegated to holidays and special occasions. Aside from
negative effects on the family budget, eating out has been shown to be
generally associated with poor food choices and bad health. Of
particular interest to public health experts is growing scientific
evidence that fewer family meals may translate to increased obesity risk
and poor nutritional status, especially among children.
But getting this message out to busy parents in a way that will
convince them to spend more time at the dining room table with their
children is problematic at best.
To both summarize what is known about this timely topic and create a
model that might be used to educate parents and other caregivers as to
the importance of family mealtimes, researchers at Rutgers recently
evaluated results from 68 previously published scientific reports
considering the association between family mealtime and children's
health. They specifically looked at how frequency or atmosphere of
family meals was related to consumption of both healthy foods (e.g.,
fruits and vegetables) and those considered less desirable (e.g., soft
drinks). The researchers also evaluated if scientific evidence actually
supports the idea that more frequent family meals can lead to decreased
obesity.
Their review of the literature revealed numerous benefits to children
associated with having frequent family meals, including increased
intake of fruits, vegetables, fiber, calcium-rich foods, and vitamins.
In addition, the more a family ate together the less children consumed
dietary components thought to be harmful to health. Although the
researchers found only a weak link between family meals and obesity
risk, children in families with frequent family meals tended to have
lower body mass index (BMI, kg/m2) than those who enjoyed fewer family
meals.
The research team was also able to create a simple conceptual image
that condensed their findings in a user-friendly fashion, and hope to
test the effectiveness of this graphic with parents and other caregivers
in the near future. According to the scientists, "Images like this one
will be a helpful method to demonstrate the benefits identified in
scientific literature to parents in a concise, non-biased method. Often
parents will hear tidbits about family meal benefits here and there, but
we hope that something like this may be useful to provide information
from a reliable source."
Clearly, the scientific literature represents a vast store of
valuable information that could help families make better decisions
about food choices. However, many people do not have the time,
inclination, or expertise needed to access, filter, and interpret these
scientific reports. Instead, they must often rely on media "headlines"
that focus on a single study, or worse do not accurately report the
research that has been conducted. The authors of this new report hope
that their "synthesis of the literature of the links between family
meals and child health outcomes and creation of a parent-friendly image
that visually summarized these findings will lead to interventions that
benefit a wide range of children."
Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB), via Newswise.
Courtesy: ScienceDaily
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