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Family meals
From CopperWiki
Family Meals are much more than just eating at home -- they are an excellent way to stronger familial ties while inculcating a taste for healthy food. Latest reserach suggests that they may even be good for the teen's mental and emotional health![1]
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[edit] Why should I be aware of this?
Meals with the family are a great time to bond with one another, for parents and children to learn about each other's thoughts, ideas and and daily activities. Family meals also have other less apparent benefits --
- Shared family meals are more likely to be nutritious, and kids who eat regularly with their families are less likely to snack on unhealthy foods and more likely to eat fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.
- Teens who take part in regular family meals are less likely to smoke, drink alcohol, or use marijuana and other drugs, and are more likely to have healthier diets as adults [2]
[edit] Family meals and health
According to a US government study [1], family dinners have the following impact on teen and adolescent behaviour --
- Among teens aged 15-16, 42 percent of teens who don’t feel close to their mother and/or father smoke, compared with 26 percent of teens who do feel close to at least one parent. In this same age group, over 34 percent of teens who don’t regularly eat dinner with their parents smoked, in contrast to just 25 percent of teens who do eat dinner regularly with their parents.
- The prevalence of drinking is nearly twice as high among 15 to 16 year olds who do not feel close to a parent and among those who do not eat dinner with a parent, compared with those who do.
- About 50 percent of 15- to 16-year-olds who aren’t close to their parents have used marijuana, compared with just 24 percent of those who are close to their parents.
- Less than 30 percent of teens aged 15-16 who eat dinner with their parents have been in a serious fight, compared with more than 40 percent of those who do not eat dinner with their parents.
- Over 50 percent of teens who do not eat dinner with their parents have had sex by age 15 to 16. By contrast, only 32 percent of teens who do eat dinner with their parents have ever had sex.
- Teens aged 15-16 who do not feel close to their parents are about three times as likely to think about suicide as teens who are close to their parents.
- Teens aged 15-16 who don’t eat dinner with their parents regularly are twice as likely to have attempted suicide.
- Teens of all ages who eat with their parents, or feel close to their parents, have higher grade point averages. In general, they are more likely to intend to go to college, and they are less likely to have been ever suspended from school.
[edit] What can I do about them?
Here are some tips to have fun with the family around the dining table.
- Set a regular family mealtime. This gives the child a better chance to eat
a healthy variety of foods.
- Make it simple, make it quick! Spend less time in the kitchen and more time at the family table. Simple meals, even cold sandwiches, taste as good as meals that take more work. The idea is to relax while eating and enjoy the feeling of togetherness
- Show that family meals are important. Turn off the TV, turn on some music everyone likes instead. Let the answering machine take the phone calls
- Eat around a table. Eating side-by-side at the kitchen counter takes
away eye contact.
- Engage in active meal time conversation. Not only is it beneficial in getting children to become more articulate, it also is useful for connecting with each others' lives and ideas.
- To plan family meals, look over the calendar to choose a time when everyone can be there. Figure out which obstacles are getting in the way of more family meals — busy schedules, no supplies in the house, no time to cook. Ask for the family's help and ideas on how these roadblocks can be removed.
- Involve the kids in the preparing of food. It is the best way to get them interested in food, and to inculcate healthy eating habits for life.
- Make family time at the table pleasant and a chance for everyone to decompress from the day and enjoy being together as a family.
[edit] Sneaking super foods into childrens' plates
- Heating lycopene-rich tomatoes makes their nutrients easier to absorb. When making your favourite curry or pasta, make sure to cook tomatoes first. Another way is to halve tomatoes lengthwise, arrange on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Grill for 15 to 20 minutes, until slightly shrivelled. Use this to make a quick paste. Or eat lots of ketchup with your food!
- High temperatures destroy allinase, garlic's most important cancer-fighting and immunity-boosting enzyme. One way of using garlic in cooking is to let crushed garlic stand for about 10 to 15 minutes before adding it to a sizzling pan. This allows the pungent herb to generate compounds that blunt the damaging effects of heat. Or add crushed fresh garlic after the food has cooked. Crushed garlic in a salad or green chutney will enhance the flavour of the food as well as its health quotient.
- Using fresh herbs as salad may more than double its cancer-fighting punch. Use lemon balm, marjoram (available at exclusive food stores), coriander, mint, basil and other similar herbs for best effect.
- Adding nuts, olive or other healthy fat sources to red, green, orange and yellow fruits and veggies (bell peppers and tomatoes to name some) increases the amount of fat-soluble vitamins, such as A, E and K. These nutrients boost vision, improve immunity and protect against stroke and osteoporosis.
- Save yourself some time-and some key nutrients by not peeling eggplant, apples, potatoes and other produce before using. The peel acts as a natural barrier against nutrient loss, and many vitamins and minerals are found in the outer skin, or just below it.
[edit] CopperBytes
- Hispanic adolescents ages 12 to 17 are more likely than non-Hispanic white and non-Hispanic black adolescents to eat meals six to seven days a week together with their families
[edit] Source
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 US Government Paper on Teen Health
- ↑ The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, Columbia University Paper
