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 “Past research has shown that having frequent family meals is
protective against youth obesity, but we don’t know why this is the
case,” said lead author Jerica M. Berge of the Department of Family
Medicine and Community Health at the University of Minnesota in
Minneapolis.
“The current study was designed to answer the ‘why’ question,” Berge
told Reuters Health by email.
The study involved 120 children, ages six to 12, from families in
the Minneapolis/St. Paul area who reported eating dinner as a family
at least three times per week.
Family meals were video-recorded on iPads for an eight-day period.
They recorded types of foods, meal length, communication and
interaction between parents and children and between siblings.
Researchers also used parent and child surveys and interviews.
Three-quarters of the children were African American and half were
overweight or obese.
Kids who were not overweight were more likely than overweight kids
to have family meals last longer and to have a father or stepfather
present. Overall, dinners lasted about 16 minutes, with an average
of 18 minutes for healthy weight kids and 13.5 minutes for
overweight kids.
“This finding may mean that when children have structure and more
supervision at the meal they have more protection against overweight
or obesity, (meaning) maybe a less chaotic meal environment and more
chances to connect,” Berge said.
The kitchen was the most common location for dinners; 80 percent of
healthy weight kids ate dinner with their families in a kitchen,
compared to 55 percent of overweight kids. More families of
overweight kids tended to eat in family rooms, offices or bedrooms.
Families with more warmth and nurturing, as rated by researchers
observing the videos, were less likely to have overweight or obese
children. Hostility, inconsistent discipline and permissive parental
attitudes were associated with increased likelihood of childhood
obesity.
“This may mean that in households where children are not overweight
or obese there are more positive interactions at the family meal,
which provides a sense of security, regularity and predictability
which may help children regulate their own daily lives better,
including self-regulating their eating behaviors,” Berge said.
Families who communicated more about food were less likely to have
overweight or obese children, according to the results published in
Pediatrics.
These findings only identify associations between meal habits and
childhood obesity, and do not prove that mealtime dynamics cause
obesity, Berge said, but there are some known healthy strategies
parents can employ at the dinner table.
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“It is important for families to try and promote a positive
atmosphere during family meals,” she said. “For example, don’t use
the family meal as a time to lecture children about their homework.
Instead, take time to connect with each other such as asking each
family member to talk about a ‘high’ or ‘low’ from their day to
promote connectivity among family members.”
Another childhood feeding and obesity study, published in the same
issue of Pediatrics, found that among same-gender twin pairs,
mothers tend to be more restrictive when feeding the child with the
higher body mass index (BMI), a measure of weight to height.
Researchers studied 64 pairs of twins ages four to seven, measuring
their BMI, body fat percentage and waist circumference. Mothers
reported their feeding styles toward each twin in a questionnaire,
which assessed restricting food items, pressuring a child to eat and
monitoring the child’s eating.
Observing twins helps to partially rule out the possibility that
heavier children are genetically predisposed to have poorer eating
self-regulation, or that they were shaped by their environment,
since twins have the same genes and environment, said senior author
Myles S. Faith from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
His results suggest that restrictive feeding may influence weight
gain.
“First, foods that are withheld might become more desired or sought
after – sort of like ‘forbidden fruit’,” Faith said in an email.
“When children eventually do get access, they might chose these less
healthy foods and overeat because they have that chance.”
“Second, restrictive feeding might disrupt children’s ‘satiety
responsiveness’ – which is the ability to recognize when we’re
full,” he said. “So, restrictive feeding may impede children
learning this skill.”
Both new studies indicate that parental choices may help determine a
child’s relationship with food and childhood weight gain.
SOURCES: http://bit.ly/1szwpwo and http://bit.ly/1vYLurC Pediatrics,
online October 13, 2014.
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