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 Past research has suggested that more frequent family meals are
linked to lower obesity, but in the current study of more than
12,000 Ohio residents, eating at home, rather than out, and without
the television on, was tied to lower obesity risk regardless of how
often family was present.
It may be difficult for some families to eat a meal together every
day, but they may be able to have healthier habits for the meals
they do share, researchers conclude in the Journal of the Academy of
Nutrition and Dietetics.
“Families' mealtime practices vary, and may be associated with
adults' obesity,” said lead author Rachel Tumin, of the Ohio
Colleges of Medicine Government Resource Center in Columbus.
“Adults might eat more food when they are watching TV, and meals
that are not home-cooked may be less healthy than meals that are
home-cooked,” Tumin said by email.
To determine how family meal practices affect obesity risk, the
study team analyzed data from the 2012 Ohio Medicaid Assessment
Survey on for 12,842 adults who had eaten at least one family meal
in the past week.
The participants answered questions about how often they ate meals
at home with their family, how often they watched TV while eating
and how many of their meals were home-cooked.
The researchers used self-reported height and weight data to
calculate each participant’s body mass index (BMI), a ratio of
weight to height. People with a BMI over 30 were considered obese,
and one third of participants fell into this category.
Overall, 52 percent of respondents ate family meals six or seven
days per week, 35 percent ate family meals about every other day and
13 percent ate meals with family one or two days a week.
About a third of adults watched TV during most or all family meals,
while another 36 percent did not watch any TV or videos during
meals. For 62 percent of adults, all of the family meals they ate
were cooked at home.
Researchers found that the number of meals people ate with their
family was not linked to their likelihood of being obese.
Adults who cooked all of their family meals at home, however, were
26 percent less likely to be obese, compared with those who ate some
or no home-cooked meals.
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People who never watched TV during meals had 37 percent lower odds
of being obese than those who always watched TV or videos during
family meals.
While eating more family meals may be beneficial for health, the
quality of meals is important as well, said Jerica Berge, an
associate professor at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis
who studies family meal practices.
“It's not just eating more of them that matters, it is important to
consider other factors such as the healthfulness of the food eaten
at the meal, the emotional atmosphere at the meal, or whether there
are distractions at the meal (e.g., TV),” Berge, who was not
involved in the study, said by email.
“Turn off the TV when having family meals and use it as a time to
check in about the day, current events, and fun future plans,” Berge
said.
Tumin also advised leaving the TV off during meals, adding, “People
who may not have time to cook their own meals could still consider
buying healthy foods for family meals.”
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2lAjPxs Journal of the Academy of Nutrition
and Dietetics, online February 24, 2017.
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