Most of us are guilty as charged! What we miss in family meals

In most homes, crazy work schedule, time deficiency and ignorance deprive families of the health benefits of mealtime together at the dining table. In the villages, unwritten culture makes it a rare practice. Experts have compiled the benefits of family meals time, reported here in the words of Dr Joseph Mercola. For example, children who ate dinner together with their family five or more times a week were less likely to suffer from mental disorders as well as obesity
Finding time to eat meals together as a family is a simple way to improve your family bond and beyond that, reap significant benefits to your health and quality of life. If your schedule or lifestyle currently does not allow for family meal times (remember that the benefits are gleaned by eating together at any time of day, even breakfast or lunch), tweaking your activities, work schedule and meal planning to do so will pay off.
Why eat together as a family?
Writing in the Archives of Iranian Medicine, researchers described family dinner as a “proxy of family connectedness,” one that may influence mental health. In fact, children who ate dinner together five or more times a week were less likely to suffer from mental disorders as well as obesity.
“Such simple recommendations for consuming family dinner for families may be feasible, sustainable and effective for health promotion and disease prevention,” they wrote. Indeed, it’s not the first time such significant effects have been linked to dining together.
In 2010, “The Importance of Family Dinners VI” report from CASAColumbia at Columbia University revealed that teens that have frequent family dinners (five to seven per week) were less likely to engage in risky behaviors than those who had less than three family dinners per week.
Good for your waistline and emotional wellbeing
There are many more benefits of family meals. Research published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior revealed that frequent family meals might have a protective effect on the mental health of adolescents. Those who shared five or more family meals per week had fewer depressive symptoms and emotional difficulties along with better emotional wellbeing. The protective link was particularly strong for depressive symptoms in girls.
Frequent family dinners along with consistent dinnertime routines were associated with lower body mass index (BMI) scores in children, which suggest it may help prevent childhood obesity.
Again, it’s the eating together that counts, not the mealtime. As such, research also shows that eating breakfast together has benefits. “Family breakfast frequency was associated with several markers of better diet quality … and lower risk for overweight/obesity in adolescents,” researchers concluded.
In addition:
■ Research shows that children who share family meals three or more times a week are more likely to be in a healthy weight range and make better food choices. They’re more likely to eat healthy foods and less likely to eat unhealthy ones and also less likely to develop eating disorders.
■ A Cornell University study found that families (both adults and children) who eat dinner in their kitchen or dining rooms have significantly lower BMIs than families who eat elsewhere. For boys, remaining at the table until everyone is finished with eating was also associated with a lower BMI.
■ Researchers at the European Conference on Obesity reported that children who don’t eat dinner with their parents at least twice weekly are 40 percent more likely to be overweight than those who do.
■ Other research shows that with each additional family dinner, adolescents have:
■ Higher self-esteem and life satisfaction
■ More trusting and helpful behaviors toward others and better relationships with their parents
■ Better vocabulary and academic performance
■ Lower teen pregnancy rates and truancy
■ Increased resilience to stress
Move your family ‘dinner’
In terms of your health, the earlier you eat your dinner the better — ideally at least three hours prior to bed. If you can, and if you can’t, then ideally you should eat a very light meal. In fact, for adults, eating two meals a day may be closer to ideal and particularly eating them in a window of six to eight consecutive hours (such as breakfast and lunch or lunch and dinner).
As mentioned, if you choose to eat dinner, it’s important to avoid eating late, ideally finishing up at least three hours before going to bed, as that is your most metabolically lowered state. This will promote good overall health while preventing cellular damage.
In short, since your body uses the least number of calories when sleeping, adding excess fuel at this time will generate excessive free radicals that will damage your tissues, accelerate aging and contribute to chronic disease. While children and teens will also benefit from avoiding late-night eating, they do not need to restrict their meals to two a day. They likely need three square meals a day unless they’re overweight.
For kids and teens, the type of food they eat would be a primary consideration. Ideally, all of their meals would revolve around eating real food — not processed foods, fast food and sugary snacks. Drinking plenty of pure water and avoiding sugary beverages is another key consideration. To sum up, don’t eat much before bed! While the social value of eating together as a family is huge, you can get that connection by eating at any time of day.