Regular family meals protect against teen eating disorders
“The family who eats together helps their teen girls control weight better.”
That’s the take home message in this new study associating disordered eating behaviors with less frequent family meals.
In a survey of 2500 adolescents, Dianne Neumark-Sztainer, and her colleagues found that among teen girls, those who take five or more meals with their families each week were significantly less likely to report using extreme measures (such as self-induced vomiting and diuretics) to control their weight five years down the road, regardless of their sociodemographic characteristics, body mass index or family connectedness. However, among adolescent boys, regular family meals did not predict lower levels of disordered eating behaviors five years later.
Reasons for sex differences are not clear but the authors speculate it may have to do with girls being involved more in food preparation and other food-related tasks, which may play a protective role in the development of disordered eating behaviors.
Imagine that, a simple meal shared by the family is actually more protective and healthful than just simply knowing “how did your day go, dear”.
Let’s have more meals together as a family!
Check out this blog “Breaking the Mirror” - an honest take on eating disorders from someone who survived it.
Tags: family meals, togetherness, eating disorders, binge eating, disordered eating behaviors, research
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POSTED IN: Behavior and Emotional Health, Family and Home, Mental Health, News, Research and Breakthroughs, Teen Health
2 opinions for Regular family meals protect against teen eating disorders
Janice
Jan 17, 2008 at 7:56 pm
I remember when I was growing up my family would eat evening meals together every night. I would go to practice after school, come home, and start my homework. Dad would come home from work and dinner would be waiting. I have great memories of our conversations.
Grace
Jan 17, 2008 at 11:07 pm
yup me too. although, as a teenager, I wasn’t always a nice person to be around with, I really appreciated my parents for insisting that we eat together. It has brought us all closer as a family that I want to share with my own today.
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