饮食计划:好处 & 家庭晚餐指南

这些天, we eat more food away from home compared to generations before us, which is unfortunate because there are many benefits of family mealtime. Here are reasons why it’s important to eat together, as well as tips on how to make family meals a reality and an enjoyable time despite everyone’s busy schedules.

Eating together with your family for about 20 minutes only three to five times a week is all it takes to benefit^1,2,3.

Some positive sides of a family mealtime include:

• Fewer behavior problems in young children
• Stronger vocabulary and more academic successes
• Teens are less likely to smoke cigarettes or marijuana, or to abuse alcohol
• Kids are less likely to be overweight and less likely to develop disordered eating
• 吃健康的食物

So, how do you make family meals part of your weekly routine?

提前计划

Have a calendar with everyone’s work and activity schedules. Pick at least two days where everyone has time to join a family meal. Even if you have to eat dinner separately and come back to the table after a soccer practice for snack of fruit with everyone, 才是最重要的! Eating breakfast or lunch together over the weekend is another great way to spend time together.

拔掉

Make the family dinner table a cell phone/TV/computer/video-game free zone; adults too! Without these major distractions, it’s easier to really focus on each other. The idea is to have an actual conversation with your entire family or group of friends.

打破僵局

It may seem strange but often families say they are not sure what to talk about around the table! If some don’t feel like sharing the details from their day, ask everyone’s favorite memory from last month or start a round of knock knock jokes. Conversation can be silly and light hearted, especially with kids.

¹Martin-Biggers J. 等.，(2012年4月). Family meals linked to healthier eating. Presented at American Society for Nutrition’s Scientific Sessions and Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA.
²哈蒙德,.J. 等., Is frequency of shared family meals related to the nutritional health of children and adolescents? 儿科. 2011年6月;127(6):1565-74.
³艾森伯格,M.E. 等., Family meals and substance use: is there a long-term protective association? J青少年健康. 2008年8月;43(2):151-6.