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 In homes where family meals were rare, children ate more fruits and
vegetables when these items were readily available and they
routinely saw parents consume them too, the survey of about 2,500
teens in Minnesota found.
“Interestingly, we found that in the absence of regular family meals
these other parenting practices had a positive association with teen
fruit and vegetable consumption, that their independent effect
appeared to be greater than family meals alone, and that the
combination of regular family meals and healthful parenting
practices had the largest positive associations with teen fruit and
vegetable intake,” said lead study author Allison Watts of the
University of Minnesota School of Public Health in Minneapolis.
“For parents, this means that the more of these positive things you
can do in your home, the greater the benefits,” Watts said by email.
“However, if you aren’t able to have regular family meals, it’s
worth focusing on other positive practices like making sure fruits
and vegetables are available and easy for your kids to access (cut
up, on the counter), encouraging your kids to eat fruits and
vegetables, and modeling this desired behavior as well,” she added.
Researchers examined survey data from middle school and high school
students in the Minneapolis and St. Paul metropolitan area in 2010.
Overall, teens reported eating 3.7 servings of fruits and vegetables
a day, less than the minimum five servings recommended for a healthy
diet.
With frequent family meals, teens got 4.2 daily servings of fruits
and veggies.
Roughly one-third of teens reported infrequent family meals –
meaning two or fewer a week - and they reported eating only 3.3
servings of fruits and vegetables a day.
Adolescents who had few family meals were more likely to be female,
in high school, black and from low-income households than those who
regularly dined with their parents and siblings.
Independent of family meals and other parenting practices, teens ate
about half a serving more of fruits and vegetables a day when these
items were cut up and left in easy to reach places on the counter or
in the fridge, researchers report in the Journal of Nutrition and
Dietetics.
How parents communicated with kids and talked about food was no
longer a factor in fruit and vegetable consumption after researchers
controlled for the frequency of family meals and other parenting
practices.
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The study is observational and doesn’t prove that things like family
meals or making fruits and vegetables readily available cause
healthy eating habits in kids.
Still, the findings highlight an income disparity in how teens eat,
noted Sarah Clark, a researcher at the University of Michigan’s C.S.
Mott Children’s Hospital who wasn’t involved in the study.
“Low-income families tend to have lower access to grocery stores
with a broad selection of fresh fruits and vegetables, measured both
in distance and in convenience of transportation, and the cost of
fresh is higher than frozen or canned, which comes into play in
terms of purchasing dollars and also related to waste if fresh
fruits or vegetables go bad,” Clark said by email.
Buying fresh produce when it’s in season or on sale, and considering
canned fruits and vegetables, can help with this, Melissa Horning, a
researcher at the University of Minnesota School of Nursing who
wasn’t involved in the study, said by email.
“I think this study offers some hope that there may be some more
subtle things that parents can do that matter – such as delegating
one of your children to cut up fruits and vegetables so they are
easily accessible in the fridge or making packaged fruits and
vegetables available on the counter,” said Nancy Zucker, director of
the center for eating disorders at Duke University in Durham, North
Carolina.
“Finding simple ways for families to eat healthier without adding to
their stress, particularly in families already low on resources, is
critical,” Zucker, who wasn’t involved in the study, added by email.
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