Healthy Habits for Healthy Kids
By Lisa Mosing, MS, RD, FADA

Since the number of overweight children has more than doubled in the past three decades, many families may want to take a moment and re-evaluate their diet and physical activity patterns. 

As the nation grows more and more overweight, families need to carefully re-examine their lifestyle and eating patterns. Studies have shown a 33% decrease over the past three decades in the number of families who report regularly having dinner together, a key component to learning healthy eating patterns as a child. If everyone is shortchanging nutrition in order to eat on the run and pack more activities into the day, the result may not be better health in later years. A simple way to begin is to start stocking healthier foods, like whole grains rich in dietary fiber, produce, lean meats and low-fat cheeses. In addition, consider developing family meal plans and start eating as a family for most meals.

Parents are the role models for growing children and families that eat together often stay healthier together. For example, studies have shown that slight dietary and lifestyle changes can drastically improve the physical and emotional health of overweight children, who have a staggering 70% increased likelihood of becoming overweight adults. Parents and children need the opportunity to develop healthy habits and responsible lifestyle choices at home, at school and throughout society.

According to a new study by the University of Minnesota, children of families who dine in together not only have diets higher in important nutrients such as dietary fiber, calcium, iron and folate, they also are less likely to suffer from depression and more likely to develop healthy habits. Focusing on adolescents, researchers found that the positive influence of family mealtime was even more prominent with girls than boys. While sharing family meals together may be valued among parents and youth, this can be difficult to achieve on a regular basis. Studies show that only about one-third of adolescents eat dinner with their family every day. About 60% of teens have dinner with their family at least 5 times a week.

Turn off Media and Plug into the Family
Moving away from television, computer games and sedentary pursuits can dramatically enhance health and provides an opportunity for the pursuit of a more active lifestyle. Children who watch several hours of television each day or who have television sets in their bedrooms are more likely to be overweight. Overweight children reported eating 50% more meals while watching television than did their normal-weight peers in a recent Children's Nutrition Research Center survey.

Although eating as a family in front of the television may seem like an easy solution, it is not a healthy solution in the long run. Positive relationships with family members and healthy habits are fostered over time. Developing a weekly schedule of family meal plans and joining the family every day around the dinner table is shown to be associated with more positive dietary intakes and healthy behaviors. Perhaps extend this concept and add a quick walk around the block after the meal to begin to show that exercise, like healthy eating, can easily fit into even the most hectic day. Time spent with the family can also enhance family interaction and communication. After all, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.