Yvonne Wake (BSc. MSc), a Public Health Nutritionist at Roehampton University, London, has written a paper on nutrition and the role a family plays, she agrees that it’s important to eat meals together as a family.
“Talking to children over dinner is a great way of gaining trust and they are more likely to talk about things that could sometimes feel uncomfortable. Regular meal times altogether give children the opportunity to discuss problems with family members; it relaxes and encourages them to wind down. From an emotional standpoint, research shows that children who frequently eat with their families have better results at school, are less depressed, less likely to drink alcohol, smoke, or use marijuana than children who eat with their families less than twice a week,” says Wake.
Some key reasons why family mealtimes are important
• Strengthen the family by providing opportunities for communications and building relationships.
• Enable children to have longer conversations with parents, which can increase their linguistic abilities giving them an edge in the classroom.
• Are seen as a marker for other positive family attributes and play an important role in helping teens cope with the stresses of adolescence.
• Lead to better nutrition as you have more control over quality and quantity of the family’s food choices.
• Enable children to adopt their parent’s attitudes to food and acceptable table manners.
• Foster family traditions and help shape and give meaning to cultural heritage.
• Children value the contact time. When Oprah Winfrey conducted a ‘Family Dinner Experiment’ in 1993, five families volunteered to eat dinner together every night for a month, staying at the table for a half-hour each time. At first, sharing meals was a chore for many families and the time dragged on. But, by the end of the month, the families were happy and planned to continue dining together most evenings, if not every night. The greatest surprise for parents was how much their children treasured the dependable time with their parents at the table.
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