The Slow Cooker over Fast Food. Here's Why:

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The Importance of Family Meal Time

How frequently a family eats together and how formal the occasion is has changed dramatically in the last twenty years. Families are either not eating together, are not spending quality time talking to each other during these meals, or are eating meals on the go – which usually consists of unhealthy meal choices. Since there have been many changes in this social ritual, many researchers have gone to the trouble to find out more about the effects of not eating together as a family. A couple of topics found in the research were the effects on family meal time on obesity, eating disorders, electronic device use, psycho social outcomes, and overall behavior development in children and adolescents.

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Interacting with Your Children

One study implemented an intervention where they would invite families to a cooking class and promote families making meals together (Flattum 2015). They found that children responded well to this intervention. They liked being there and participating in this activity with their family. They enjoyed the activity because it allowed them to be with their family, build relationships there and feel loved. They also enjoyed the food. 
The food provided was healthy and the study was meant to lower overweight and obesity in children and adolescents. They saw a lot of success in helping these families prioritize family meals and promote healthy eating with their families. Also, since it was an activity, the family got to get up and do something together, promoting other forms of family time and decreasing a sedentary lifestyle.

Make Food. Build Your Child.

This helps children feel safe and develop stronger relationships with their parents and siblings. Knowing that someone cares about them and is interested in their lives makes them happy and gives them confidence. It also gives them a source of someone to trust and to follow. Seeing their parents cook and eat sets the example of how the child should eat. Parents are their first exposure, and main exposure for a while, all they know about life and food comes from that exposure.

No time for dinner? Any meal will do!

Usually family meal time refers to dinner but this study focused on eating breakfast together (Larson 2013). Children who reported eating breakfast with their families consumed more fruits, whole grains, and fiber than those who did not. Benefits were seen most profoundly in a two parent home. Eating together and making meals at home promotes nutritious intake and decreases risk of obesity and malnutrition in children. They get the energy and nutrients they need to grow and develop but minimal foods that could damage their health. This study focused on breakfast and dinner, other studies have been done on just dinner time meals. The research portrays that benefits are seen with more family time.

Preventing Eating Disorders

Family meals have an effect on individuals with eating disorders. This study mainly focused on adolescents but could be applied to other groups. This study particularly focused on individuals with anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa (Elran-Barak 2014). The study shows that those with anorexia have a much higher frequency of having meals with family than those with bulimia. Anorexic individuals may have felt weaker and chose to stay home, where they would have had dinner with their family. Bulimic individuals are thought to have parents that were less determined to have family meals, and then did not notice disordered eating. Parents can become aware early on if their child has an eating disorder or other problems developing when there are family meals to talk with and observe children.
Meal time is so important when children and adolescents are facing problems in their lives. They feel alone, like everyone is against them, and they just need someone to listen to them and support them. People may be insecure about their food or body type but those are issues that come from other problems, such as media exposure, peer pressure, culture, etc. They need a friend, a parent that will be there for them and help them create healthy relationships, including ones with food.

Put the screens away.

The study that looked at use of electronics during dinner time saw that these children and adolescents were less likely to have a meal with fruits and vegetables (Fulkerson 2014). More likely to have a meal with sugar sweetened beverages. Electronic use was higher in homes with low education, Asian, or black ethnicities. Mealtimes were less important to children who used electronics. Meal times are not special because children often eat and watch television throughout the day. Meal times become special when they interact with those around them, making a meal a set apart experience from the rest of the day. Parents with rules about electronic use at the dinner table significantly reduced use.

It is obvious that having electronics at the table is not the best for spending quality time with the family. Growing up, my own family had a rule about having our phones out while we were having family time. Since moving out and getting married, I haven’t really considered why that was important. Researching this topic helped me realize that I am on my phone during meal times and not interacting with those around me during these important moments. I need to turn off Netflix and just have a conversation with my husband about our day. It is so sad and is a waste when we take the time to make dinner and eat together but don’t actually spend time together during the whole process, in a sense.

Since having this realization, I have made the point to not be on my phone during meal times especially, and also other family times. I have noticed that I don’t argue as much with my husband. He would get frustrated that he told me he had a test a million times but I would be distracted by my phone or computer that I didn’t even hear him or care to listen. It is the same the other way around, I get less frustrated with him because we have each other’s undivided attention when we eat together. It helps with our communication and just helping the other person feel loved and that they are listened to.

Family time is a protection to your kids  

In another study, children and adolescents who did not participate in family dinner had higher frequencies of disordered eating, alcohol use, substance use, violent behavior, depression, and thoughts of suicide (Harrison 2015). Those who did participate in family dinner had increased self-esteem and had success in school. Having daily social interaction with loved ones builds self-esteem. Benefits were seen for both boys and girls, with girls experiencing a more positive response (Fulkerson 2005). Families should be educated on the benefits of family meal time. This practice should be promoted in communities by advertising existing programs, including this information in the curriculum, or having a guest lecturer.

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This just makes sense to me. If a teenager is going through something and they do not know what to do and they don’t feel like there is a situation where they can come to their family, they will act out. They might feel like everyone is too busy because they don’t have that designated time to be together. They will look for ways to get back at family or just get lost not having that tutelage from people who really do care about them.

Specific benefits children and teenagers have experienced - setting priorities

Adolescents that participated in family meal time experienced good family support, clear boundaries and expectations, they were committed to learning, had positive values, were socially competent, and had a positive identity. Adolescents that did not participate in family meal time experienced higher frequencies of substance use, sexual activity, depression/suicide, antisocial behaviors, violence, school problems, bulimia, and excessive weight loss. Possible solutions are implementing family dinner. It has been studied and is seen as a protection. Each family should come up with a realistic strategy to have regular family meals. One idea is to have meals around the same time every day and create an expectation that all family members should be there on time to eat together.

Going through these points gives more of a perspective on what is important and what is a priority. It is important to do homework, get exercise, go to work, but it should be more of a priority to build relationships with family that honestly have long lasting effects on each family member’s overall health. It is worth taking an hour or two out of the day to create that relationship and to maintain it. It can’t be passive either. Both parties must want to be present and enjoy that time together. It takes time, repetition, and commitment. That is why educating people on why family meals are important is so essential. It is not always easy to get everyone together for dinner or any meal multiple days out of the week. People have to know why it is important and be motivated to make changes in order to see these changes happen and become permanent.

There are many benefits to having regular family time. It is a time to build relationships and to be involved with children during a pivotal time in their life where they need more guidance and parental involvement. People at this age tend to be the most insecure and the most open to learning. They develop lifelong beliefs and are finding themselves as a person. Doing something as simple as spend an hour or so sharing a meal with a child and talking to them about their day, makes you aware of what is going on in their lives and what they are struggling with.

Invest in your families future.

Solutions to protecting adolescents and children is to educate families on the benefits of having family meals together. Parents should be encouraged to make rules forbidding electronics from the dinner table. Families should spend meal times together to improve their children’s diet and have that special time to spend together as a family and create good relationships. The research clearly shows that family meal time is beneficial in preventing and overcoming eating disorders, maintaining a healthy body weight, building social skills and self-esteem, and promoting healthy mental development in children and adolescents.

Slow Cooker Recipes to try at home!

References:

Harrison, M.E., Norris, M.L., Obeid, N., Fu, M., Weinstangel, H., Sampson, M. (2015). Systematic Review of the Effects of Family Meal Frequency on Psychosocial Outcomes in Youth. Can Fam Physician, 61. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25925226

Flattum, C., Draxten, M., Horning, M., Fulkerson, J.A., Neumark-Sztainer, D., Garwick, A., Kubik, M.Y., Story, M. (2015). HOME Plus: Program Design and Implementation of a Family-Focused, Community-Based Intervention to Promote the Frequency and Healthfulness of Family Meals, Reduce Children’s Sedentary Behavior, and Prevent Obesity. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act, 29. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24139290

Elran-Barak, R., Sztainer, M., Goldschmidt, A.B., Le Grange, D. (2014). Family Meal Frequency Among Children and Adolescents with Eating Disorders. J Adolesc Health, 55. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24529833

Fulkerson, J.A., Loth K., Bruening, M., Berge, J., Eisenberg, M.E., Meumark-Sztainer,          D. (2014). Time to Talk Tonight: Use of Electronic Media by Adolescents During Family Meals and Associations with Demographic Characteristics, Family Characteristics, and Food Served. J Acad Nutr Diet, 114. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=family+meal+time+and+electronics

Larson, N., MacLehose, R., Fulkerson, J.A., Berge, J.M., Story, M., Neumark-Sztainer,         D. (2013). Eating Breakfast and Dinner Together as a Family: Associations with Sociodemographic Characteristics and Implications for Diet Quality and Weight Status. J Acad Nutr Diet, 113. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25676655

Fulkerson, A., Story, M., Mellin, A., Leffert, N., Neumark-Sztainer, D., French, S. (2005).       Family Dinner Meal Frequency and Adolescent Development: Relationships with Developmental Assets and High-Risk Behaviors. Journal of Adolescent Health, 39. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1054139X0500577X


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