Eating together is better! Science behind family meals

23 March, 2015 Blog

DR. ANASTASIOS PAPALAZAROU*

You may not know that, but eating together with our family has many benefits according to scientists – apart from offering beautiful moments of happiness of course.

The above mentioned benefits are not referring just to the strengthening of family ties and the improvement of children’s social behavior, but also to the formation of a balanced diet for children and adolescents, which they will follow until their adulthood. The science of family meals has completed more than 3 decades of life and is based on hundreds of studies.

Eating together has been associated with improved eating behaviors, such as higher consumption of fruit and vegetables, lower obesity rates among children and adolescents, better body image for adolescents, as well as lower levels of eating disorders.

The role of parents as dietary models, the cooking process, the family meal’s structure and content, the time we spend eating, are just some of the reasons for which family meals have such a nutritional value.

* The science supporting the family meals’ importance in the formation of eating behaviors among children and adolescents, will be presented by Dr. Anastasios Papalazarou, Clinical Dietitian – Nutritionist and President of the NGO “Child Nutrition”, on Saturday, March 21st at 19:00, in Athens Science Festival.

#LetsEatTogether