Not Your Mother’s Nutrition – The Art and Psychology of Family Meals

I think of the proverbial American dinnertime: A Norman Rockwell family happily partaking in a 5-course meal.  Then I think of my poor mom who worked so hard to make healthy meals for my three brothers and me which we rewarded with incessant complaining.

Luckily my mom had a sense of humor. When her cooking experiments were really bad, she admitted to it and made fun of herself.  Her most famous flops included her make-ahead-and-freeze goulash which mated and multiplied in the freezer.  We never seemed to get to the bottom of the batch.  There was “happiness stew,” a tasteless, black-bean stew we dubbed, “stew of loathing and unhappiness” and lima bean casserole.  Mom let us put the lima beans under car wheels to be properly disposed of.

Every day my best friend and I used to beg her mom to save me from my mom’s cooking by inviting me for dinner.  Her mom made lasagna, breadsticks, salad and cheesecake while my mom made spinach quiche and homemade bread.  When I sat down to eat mom’s food it actually tasted fine.  I wish I would’ve thanked her more as a child.

Even if you are rewarded with complaints, cook for your kids!  Columbia University’s Importance of Family Dinners V study released in September of 2009, compared the intellectual, social and behavioral benefits to families that regularly ate dinners together vs. those that did not.  Following are some of the benefits:

1. Higher Grades - The more meals children eat at home, the higher their grades at school.  “Compared to teens who have five to seven family dinners per week, those who have fewer than three family dinners per week are one and a half times likelier to report getting mostly C’s or lower grades in school.”
2. Advanced Language Development – Children learn vocabulary and communication skills from parents during dinnertime conversation.   A Harvard study found that table conversation was more effective in developing vocabulary than reading together.
3. Better Nutrition- Healthy food choices teach your children proper nutrition.  Girls who eat most meals with their families are one-third less likely to develop eating disorders.
4. Superior Behavior –  teens who had family dinners 5 times per week or more were two times less likely to smoke cigarettes, one and a half times less likely to drink alcohol.  They are also much less likely to use drugs.
5. Higher Character – children are constantly being bombarded with good or bad morals from their peers, teachers and the media.  Let them hear your voice above the rest!  Look at characterfortcollins.org and discuss a different quality each month.

Speaking of character, gratefulness is a trait lacking in the emerging generations.  I am not a fan of using “Children are starving in Africa” tactics to get children to eat, but I think we need to be frank with our children, instilling gratefulness and teaching them how lucky we are to have a variety and selection of foods available to us.  These days hunger in Haiti is on the forefront of everyone’s mind.  How lucky we are compared to much of the world.  Let us never forget that.

We need stronger families and stronger communities and I believe that starts around the dinner table.  We all have to eat so what better time to connect with your family and community?  Cooks, please do not weary in your service.  Know that what you do impacts your children, your community and your world.  You will be thanked later.

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Posted by Esther Hansen on Feb 19 2010 Filed under Wellness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry