Benefits of Eating with Your Family

Importance of Eating with Family

Regarding the creation of habits, the fact of sharing this moment has been shown to favor the transmission of eating patterns and customs, generating important benefits for the future health and quality of the diet of children and adolescents. In fact, eating as a family is frequently associated with following a more balanced diet and is considered a preventive factor against possible eating disorders.

Sharing food is the best way to instill good eating habits and is an opportunity to increase the frequency of exposure of children to the food groups that tend to be more problematic, accustom them to all kinds of flavors, and educate them in family customs / social at the table.

In addition, if the atmosphere is right, family meals can also become a time to enjoy.

In order to promote this, the creation of a positive and conflict-free environment is essential. In addition, involving all family members in activities related to eating (shopping, deciding on the weekly menu, preparing and cooking food, etc.) is another of the main recommendations. Finally, and as far as possible, it is recommended to avoid interruptions and distractions (television, telephone, radio, etc.).

For all these reasons, promoting family meals has become a public health measure to reduce overweight and improve population eating habits, occupying, in fact, the first place within the actions in the family and community environment of the NAOS strategy.