THEY OUGHT TO DO A STUDY...:

TV on or off, family meals are found to be healthier ones (Tara Parker-Pope, October 16, 2007, NY Times)

Families who watched television at dinner ate just about as healthfully as families who dined without it. The biggest factor wasn't whether the television was on or off, but whether the family was eating the meal together. [...]

The research, published this month in The Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, is the latest testament to the power of the family meal. While many parents worry about what their kids are eating - vegetables versus junk - a voluminous body of research suggests that the best strategy for improving a child's diet is simply putting food on the table and sitting down together to eat it.

The importance of the family meal has been shown mainly in studies from the University of Minnesota, Harvard and Rutgers that have looked at the family eating habits of nearly 40,000 middle-school students and teenagers. The research has shown that those who regularly have meals with their parents eat more fruits, vegetables and calcium-rich foods, ingest more vitamins and nutrients and consume less junk food. Some of the research has shown that kids who regularly sit down to a family meal are at lower risk for behaviors like smoking and drug and alcohol use.

...on what kind of people need studies to tell them basic human truths.

Posted by Orrin Judd at October 16, 2007 12:36 PM