The case for bringing back family meals

Our household is typical — two working parents, two busy kids, very little time to sit down together as a family for dinner. It’s easy to slip into bad dining habits, despite the best of intentions. One parent is running late, and the kids need to eat before baseball practice. Or it’s the end of the week and, out of pure exhaustion, we plop down in front of the TV with our dinner plate. We’re human. But when we find ourselves slipping away from the dinner table too often, we always try to take stock and pull the family back there. It’s worth it.

Numerous research studies have shown the impact that family meals have on growing children. One study being released soon in the Journal of Pediatrics is receiving a lot of attention: Researchers analyzed data on more than 2,200 people spanning 10 years, and they determined that having as little as one or two family meals a week during adolescence significantly lowers the odds of having a weight problem as an adult. Children who never had family meals were much more likely to be an overweight or obese adults, according to the study.

[Read: Lose Weight in Your Kitchen, Not Your Gym .]

The reason for this protective effect is not known. Researchers speculate that it’s likely due to a number of factors. For one thing, family meals tend to be healthier than take-out food or restaurant food. Previous research has shown that the more often kids eat family meals, the higher their intake of fruits, vegetables, calcium and whole grains. Eating together at a table may also help children pay closer attention to their hunger and fullness cues, compared to eating in front of the TV or in the car — thus helping them eat more appropriate servings of food.

Family meals also seem to help kid’s psychological development. Research has demonstrated that kids who grow up eating family meals are less likely to use tobacco, alcohol or marijuana, more likely to have good grades, and less likely to report depression or suicidal thoughts.

Recently, there was a food fight over family meals on the Internet. On one side, health professionals preached the importance of this family practice. The other as spurred by a critique published in the journal Contexts, and it showcased the the uprising of protest from exhausted, overscheduled parents. The critique struck a nerve, for sure — it pointed out that life, especially for working- class and low income families, can get in the way of family meals. Plenty of parents agreed, judging by the social media chatter.

[Read: Can Recommending Sandwiches, Eggs and Roasted Chickens Really Be Considered ‘Elitist’? ]

While this is a healthy debate to have, it still doesn’t change the fact that sitting down at a table with a child and “breaking bread” together is good for that child. The more, the better. There simply isn’t a substitute for it — when else does a child have the attention of an adult, sitting at the same table and simply conversing? In fact, family meals may even be more important now than ever before, with the competing influence of smartphones, tablets and 24-hour news channels.

Part of the pushback likely comes from the confusion over terminology. One misunderstanding is in the use of “family” in the title, leading many people to assume that the entire family must be sitting down together — a tall order in many households. When researchers look at family meals, they are looking at an adult sitting at a table with a child, eating a meal together. This means that a family meal counts even if a parent is missing or if the entire family is not together. As long as one adult is sitting and eating with one child, it counts as a family meal.

[Read: Why Is Everyone Always Giving My Kids Junk Food? ]

Another source of confusion is that many people assume “family meal” means the same thing as “home-cooked meal.” It does not. Any meal can become a family meal — it is the act of sitting down together that qualifies it as a family meal, not the time spent cooking.

In short, if we eat, we can try to turn more of those eating occasions into family meals simply by our choice of where and how we eat.

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The Case for Bringing Back Family Meals originally appeared on usnews.com

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