Eating Together Improves Overall Health

Throughout North America organizations are popping up to promote communal eating environments--and with the steady rise in obesity, it’s a good thing. The benefits of eating together around a table instead of being glued to the television, or one member of the family making sure they’re home in time to join in generate surprisingly effective results.

Organizations like Chicago’s Common Threads run by cook Art Smith instill the importance of nutrition and physical well being when it comes to home-cooked meals. This particular collective also encourages children to have an appreciation of foods from different cultures. Smith comments on his foundation, saying their motto is joining family and food by our ‘common threads.’

In British Columbia, a program funded by the Dietitians of Canada, promotes the education of healthy eating and encourages communal meals. Studies by Canada’s Heart and Stroke Foundation show that families who eat together tend to eat better, and one of their many suggestions for busy families is preparing meals in a slow cooker during the day so it’s done by the time everyone arrives home from work and school.

Studies by Science Daily surveyed over 1,500 students once in high school and once after they turned 20 years old to determine whether or not family meals have a long term effect on their eating habits. The results showed that the kids who’d eaten regularly with their family while living at home ate more fruit, dark green and orange vegetables and drank less soda.

Research conducted by Miriam Weinstein for her book, “The Surprising Power of Family Meals” includes facts like “Teenagers who eat with their family were twice as likely to get A’s” and “Family meals are 8 times more helpful in teaching children vocabulary than reading to children.” Also mentioned are the obvious results such as gaining better conversational skills, the ability to relate better and parents being allowed to monitor their growing children’s diet more closely.

Of course, there are challenges for families with busy lifestyles who work overtime, night shifts and odd hours. Also, children are normally involved in extracurricular activities that run late, or demand a lot of after school time. But with the embarrassing percentage of obesity in North America, making the effort could make all the difference to not only your (current or future) children’s overall health, but yours as well.