B4FD Reflections: Family Dinner & Health

This month, Blog for Family Dinner founders will reflect back on some lessons learned from our B4FD guest bloggers over the past year. This week, I'm offering my reflections.

Family dinner is a wonderful way for kids and families to stay connected; that's something we at B4FD talk about all the time. I believe that family dinner also has the potential to improve the broad health of society. Family dinner has been shown to be effective in addressing many health challenges ranging from childhood obesity to risky behaviors in teens to self-esteem issues to adolescent depression. Coming from a background in public health, that's one reason family dinner resonates with me. A positive health intervention that can change the lives of millions for little to no cost? Something that, once your family gets into the routine of it, can be fun, rewarding and good-for-you? Family dinner is the opposite of medicine, but it has the potential to bolster the health of our nation, especially our children. Yes, it's that important.

So, my B4FD reflection centers on Elizabeth Brotherton's (PreventObesity.net) post, Keeping Kids Healthy, One Meal at a Time. Her post captures the "touch-feely" reasons for embracing family dinner as well as citing the scientific research that backs this "gut" feeling many of us have. She writes

...it's often those memories of time at the table with my own family that keeps me motivated. In my gut, I know that people are more likely to have a healthier relationship with food if they spend time with it —preparing it, serving it, taking time to eat it (rather than just shoving it down from the drive thru). 

As it turns out, my instincts are backed by scientific research. A growing body of evidence shows that children who regularly eat meals with their family are less likely to be obese. 

In one major national study, 4-year-old children who ate dinner with their family six or seven days a week had a 25 percent lower risk of obesity compared to kids who ate dinner with their family less frequently. Other studies also have found that adolescents who regularly eat family meals are less likely to be obese. 

Read Elizabeth's full post here:  Keeping Kids Healthy, One Meal at a Time 

Today, Monday September 24, 2012, is also CASA's Family Day, established over a decade ago as a way to remind parents that family dinner was an effective way to stay connected with their kids. CASA research has shown many times over that frequent family dinners reduce the likelihood that teens will engage in risky behaviors, as well as improving family relationships and performance at school. CASA's Family Day is an important campaign we champion at B4FD, though we know reducing illegal drug and alcohol use among teens is just one of the important benefits of family dinner. Family meals can mean happier, healthier families and a healthier society as well, and that's something to celebrate!

Fighting Obesity without a "Food War"

Obesity is the pathway to a wide range of health maladies we face, including heart disease, diabetes, kidney disease--and the economic malady of high health care costs.  James R. Knickman, Founder and CEO of NYS Health Foundation, The Huffington Post, 12.14.10

As a physician, I am always looking for treatments. But with obesity, the available treatments in no way match the size of the problem. We must find effective ways to prevent obesity.  Jeanne Clark, MD, MPH Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, paraphrased from  presentation at Super-Sized World Conference, NYAS, 12.09.10

What can be done about the obesity crisis? First off, we have to recognize that it is a genuine crisis and that the rates of obesity are climbing at alarming rates both here and abroad.  (Childhood obesity rates have more than tripled in the last 30 years!) Part of this recognition must be to eschew the "food wars" sniping that seems to reduce the obesity problem to a question of whether school bake sales should be "outlawed" or not. Homemade cookies, or homemade food of any kind, are not fueling these obesity rates!

Parents and families are perhaps the most important resource in the fight against childhood obesity. Rather than alienating or berating parents, we have to educate them about healthy food and lifestyle choices, being sure to promote fresh food is delicious and just as fun as "fast food." Good food shouldn't be demonized or seen as "punishment" or "medicine." This discussion should be taking place in pediatricians' offices, at PTA meetings, on the playground, and in the workplace. This is not about taking away bake sales or occasional treats; this is about creating a "norm" of what a healthy balanced life looks like and feels like. Of course, I feel like regular family dinner is an important part of what normal healthy eating looks like. Encouraging family dinner is one route to promoting healthy families.

Just as there is no single villain, no single intervention may be enough, be it better school lunches, or a soda tax, or more physical education at school. Many things must come into play in order to really see a difference and reverse this trend in childhood obesity. Family dinner is a good place to start.

Related Reading:
Obesity: We Need an All-out Campaign, James Knickman, 12.14.10

Food, Obesity, and Regulation: Simmering Culture War Boils Over, ABC News, 12.15.10

From the Academic Literature:

Long-term effects of a lifestyle intervention on weight and cardiovascular risk factors in individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus: four-year results of the Look AHEAD trial. Arch Intern Med. 2010 Sep 27;170(17):1575-7.The best current treatments for obesity include intensive lifestyle coaching, which can have short-term weight reduction. This article is the latest report in a multi-year study. Unfortunately, the treatment group regained weight, on average, in the long-term.