Children who regularly sit down with their families to eat tend to enjoy better health, have a considerably lower risk of becoming obese, and develop healthy eating habits, researchers from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign revealed in the journal Pediatrics. Regularly means at least three meals per week.
The authors add that children who share meals with their families frequently are also much less likely to have disordered eating, which is one of the early signs of a potential eating disorder. This is the first study, the authors explain, that determined whether there might be a link between shared family meals and nutritional health in children.