Family Meals
As we get back to school and life gets busy, it is easy to let meals around the table slip in importance. Study after study shows, however, that on multiple factors, having family meals together is the single most important thing we can do for our kids’ health.
Benefits of Meals around the Table
- Physical Health– According to the American Association of Pediatrics, families who eat 3 or more family meals together per week, reduce their odds for being overweight by 12% and eating unhealthy foods by 20%.
- Academia– Family meals and the dinner conversations that accompany them increase children’s vocabulary and ability to produce and understand stories.
- Psychological– Family meals give children a place to be heard and understood.
- By the teenage years, teens who eat dinner together report lower teen pregnancy rates, depression, and eating disorders.
On the side of mom, however, it is difficult to get healthy meals on the table every night with overwhelmed schedules when it is much easier to pick up fast food! One of the priorities of Mom’s Priority is healthy families, so here are some family meal ideas to help you when you get overwhelmed:
