{"id":2584,"date":"2008-11-15T11:00:48","date_gmt":"2008-11-15T16:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/?p=2584"},"modified":"2008-11-14T14:46:21","modified_gmt":"2008-11-14T19:46:21","slug":"family-meals-make-for-healthier-teens-and-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/11\/family-meals-make-for-healthier-teens-and-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Family Meals Make for Healthier Teens and Children"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Are family meals making a comeback? I know in my household we are trying to make an effort to eat most meals at the kitchen table instead of haphazardly around the family room. I&#8217;ve found that my two-year-old daughter will eat much better that way than just hanging out on the couch and eating in front of the tube.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/mom_cooking_o0u5.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2588 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/mom_cooking_o0u5-300x200.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I would have thought that most households eat meals informally. Everything is so fast paced and short attention spanned, people just eat when they get around to it. But, according to a 2026 Columbia University survey of more than 1,500 teens and parents, 59 percent of teens eat dinner with their families at least five times a week, an increase of 12 percent over the last decade.<!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;Families who eat together have healthier, more balanced diets,&#8221; says Dawn Jackson Blatner, R.D., L.D.N., a spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. &#8220;Making family mealtime a priority not only improves everyone&#8217;s physical health, but it also contributes to their overall well-being and mental health.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>There&#8217;s some concrete research that shows it&#8217;s healthy to eat together.<\/p>\n<p>A 2000 Harvard Medical School study of more than 16,000 boys and girls ages 9-14 revealed adolescents who shared frequent meals with their families ate more fruits and vegetables and less fried food, saturated fat, and <a title=\"trans fat\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/09\/the-low-down-on-fats\/\" target=\"_self\">trans fat<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>There are many other possible reasons why eating together is healthier. You can read more from the <a title=\"Cooking Light\" href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2008\/HEALTH\/family\/11\/07\/cl.family.meals\/index.html?eref=rss_health\" target=\"_blank\">Cooking Light article<\/a> at CNN.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Are family meals making a comeback? I know in my household we are trying to make an effort to eat most meals at the kitchen table instead of haphazardly around the family room. I&#8217;ve found that my two-year-old daughter will &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/11\/family-meals-make-for-healthier-teens-and-children\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3695],"tags":[346,1661,31,345,349,29],"class_list":["post-2584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diet-and-nutrition","tag-dinner","tag-family-health","tag-health-news","tag-healthy-eating","tag-meals","tag-nutrition"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2584"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2584\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2698,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2584\/revisions\/2698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}