Eat with your kids

Eat with your kids: It turns out that a nightly dinner is beneficial for the mind, body, and soul. And that nightly dinner does not need to be a gourmet meal that took three hours to prepare or consist of organic arugula and heirloom parsnips. Here are defining that why should you Eat with your kids?

Eat with your kids

Brain food

For starters, researchers discovered that dinnertime conversation improves vocabulary in young children more than reading aloud. The researchers counted the number of uncommon words — those not discovered on a list of the 3,000 most common words — used by families during dinner conversations. Young children learned 1,000 uncommon words at the dinner table, compared to only 143 when parents read them bedtime stories. Children with a vast vocabulary read more quickly and effortlessly.

Even older children benefit intellectually from family gatherings. Regular mealtime is a stronger predictor of high achievement scores among school-aged children than time spent in school, doing homework, performing athletics, or creating art.

Other researchers have found a correlation between the frequency of family dinners and the academic performance of adolescents. Teenagers who ate dinner with their families five to seven times per week were twice as likely to receive A grades as those who ate dinner with their families fewer than two times per week.

Does a body good

Children who eat family dinners on a regular basis consume more fruits, vegetables, vitamins, and micronutrients, as well as fewer fried foods and fizzy beverages. And the nutritional benefits continue to accrue even after children reach adulthood: young adults who ate regular family meals as adolescents are less likely to be obese and more likely to consume healthfully as adults.

Some research has even discovered a link between regular family dinners and the alleviation of symptoms in medical conditions such as asthma. The benefit may be the result of two potential outcomes of a shared family meal: decreased anxiety and the opportunity to monitor a child’s medication compliance.

All of these benefits are not solely the result of consuming nutritious foods. Important as well is the dinner atmosphere. To encourage healthful nutrition in children, parents must be warm and involved, rather than restrictive and controlling.

If the television is on during supper, all bets are off. In one study, kindergarteners who watched television during dinner were more likely to be overweight by the end of third grade. In Sweden, Finland, and Portugal, the relationship between viewing television during dinner and childhood obesity was also reported.

Soul food

In addition, a plethora of studies link regular family dinners to a reduction in a variety of high-risk adolescent behaviors that parents dread, including smoking, excessive drinking, marijuana use, violence, school problems, eating disorders, and sexual activity. Regular family dinners were associated with reduced rates of depression and suicidal ideation in a study of more than 5,000 Minnesota adolescents. According to a recent study, cyberbullying victims who had regular family dinners were better able to recover. Family dinners have been found to be a more effective deterrent against high-risk adolescent behavior than church attendance or excellent grades.

In addition to the absence of negative behaviors, regular family dinners are also associated with positive ones. In a study conducted in New Zealand, a strong correlation was found between the frequency of family meals and adolescents’ positive attitudes. Similarly, other researchers have demonstrated that adolescents who routinely dine with their families have a more optimistic outlook on the future than their peers who do not dine with their parents.

What’s so magical about mealtime?

In the majority of industrialized nations, families do not farm, play musical instruments, or sew comforters on the front veranda. Therefore, dinner is the most reliable method for families to communicate and learn about each other’s lives. In a survey, when American adolescents were asked when they are most likely to communicate with their parents, supper was their top response. Children who consume dinner with their parents are less stressed and have a stronger bond with them. This daily mealtime connection is akin to a seatbelt for the bumpy road of childhood and adolescence, with all of its potential hazardous behaviors.

Obviously, dinners’ true potency rests in their interpersonal nature. If family members remain in stone-cold silence or if parents scream at each other or reprimand their children, family dinner will not be beneficial. Sharing a roasted chicken will not magically improve relationships between parents and children. However, dinner may be the only time of the day when a parent and child can share a positive experience, such as a well-prepared meal, a jest, or a story, and these tiny moments can build momentum to create stronger bonds outside of the table.