{"id":631119,"date":"2023-04-19T18:56:09","date_gmt":"2023-04-19T23:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sellorbuyhomefast.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/19\/longer-mealtimes-helps-kids-eat-more-fruits-and-veggies\/"},"modified":"2023-04-19T18:56:09","modified_gmt":"2023-04-19T23:56:09","slug":"longer-mealtimes-helps-kids-eat-more-fruits-and-veggies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/19\/longer-mealtimes-helps-kids-eat-more-fruits-and-veggies\/","title":{"rendered":"Longer Mealtimes Helps Kids Eat More Fruits and Veggies"},"content":{"rendered":"
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April 19, 2023 — Deborah Schranz, a 34-year-old librarian in Teaneck, NJ, has dinner with her family \u2014 including her 3- and 6-year-old sons \u2014 several nights a week, as well as Saturday lunch. Based on her Orthodox Jewish practice, Sabbath lunch is also a formal meal. Friday night and Saturday lunch meals tend to be longer than ordinary weeknight meals.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI start Sabbath lunch off with a salad,\u201d Schranz said. \u201cIt helps my children to eat more vegetables when they sit down hungry and the first food item they encounter is a vegetable.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The longer Friday night and Sabbath meals also afford the children some extra time to eat healthier foods.\u00a0 A new study suggests that even slightly longer meals can promote healthy eating in kids.<\/span><\/p>\n

A team of German scientists studied 50 parent-child duos who were invited to a video laboratory for two free evening meals, offered under different conditions. The children ranged from 6 to 11 years old. Participants were aware that they were being filmed, but not that the researchers were going to measure how much fruit and vegetables they ate.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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Both meals consisted of cold cuts (cheese and meat) as well as bite-sized pieces of fruits and vegetables. At the end of the meal, participants were offered desserts of chocolate pudding or fruit yogurt and cookies. Parents had filled out questionnaires prior to participation, so all foods were selected based on the child\u2019s preferences.<\/span><\/p>\n

One meal was defined as a \u201cregular family mealtime duration\u201d of 20 minutes, while the other meal lasted 10 minutes longer (30 minutes). Which meal condition would be completed first was determined randomly.<\/span><\/p>\n

The researchers found that the children ate significantly more pieces of fruits and vegetables when the family meals lasted 10 minutes longer than usual, without a similar increase in other, less-healthy foods.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Cradle of Eating Behavior<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Senior investigator Jutta Mata, PhD, professor of health psychology at the University Mannheim in Germany,\u00a0said she and her colleagues started the study because about 8 years ago, they asked themselves \u201cwhy psychological interventions to change nutrition and eating behaviors were not as successful as hoped for.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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One possible explanation they came up with was that \u201ceating is often seen as the result of individual behavior \u2014 a person\u2019s individual knowledge, motivation, or willpower determine what and how much they eat \u2014 yet eating is a social behavior,\u201d she said. \u201cMost people regularly eat in company. In fact, the word \u2018companion\u2019 stems from the Latin words \u2018with bread\u2019 \u2014 the company you\u2019re \u2018breaking bread\u2019 with \u2014 and eating has been shown to be the bonding kit between people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

She said eating together is \u201cparticularly important for children because not only are parents the nutritional \u2018gatekeepers\u2019 of their children (they determine what the child eats), but they frequently eat together with their children.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, family meals have been called the \u201ccradle of eating behavior,\u201d she said, adding that some anthropologists have even called such joint meals the \u201ccradle of civilization.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mata\u2019s group already looked at studies that showed family meals were associated with healthier nutrition in children. They also identified mealtime practices (including longer mealtimes) that, when used during family meals, were associated with healthier nutrition in kids.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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But those studies were based on parents\u2019 reporting the information. The researchers wanted to directly observe the family meals to test specifically whether the duration of the meal could contribute to kids eating more fruits and vegetables.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Creative Ways to Increase Healthy Eating in Kids<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The current study showed that children ate seven more pieces of fruits and vegetables, which translates to about one portion per meal, during the longer mealtimes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis outcome has practical importance for public health because 1 additional daily portion reduces the risk of cardiometabolic disease by 6% to 7%,\u201d the authors wrote.<\/span><\/p>\n

Longer family meals were also tied with a slower eating rate, increased sense of fullness, and a lower risk of obesity \u2014 \u201cpossibly because increases in satiety played a role in reduced snacking between meals.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Beyond the increased length of the meal, the researchers think that cutting up the fruits and vegetables might have helped, although that still \u201cneeds to be tested by empirical research,\u201d Mata said.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cOne way to think about eating healthy is as the result of opportunities to do so,\u201d she said. \u201cIn the case of our study, we provided the time \u2014 extra time in the prolonged condition; the food \u2014 fruits and vegetables that the child liked were on the table; and an easy-to-eat format: fruits and vegetables cut into bite-size pieces.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The authors suggested that families can establish new routines with longer mealtimes, including focusing on the mealtime most likely to succeed (not breakfast, when everyone is in a rush); accommodating children\u2019s preferences (for example, playing background music that they have chosen); and setting \u201ctransparent rules\u201d (for example, everyone stays at the table for a certain length of time).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThese strategies may not always work,\u201d the authors said. \u201cHabit change takes effort.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Schranz has \u201ctransparent rules\u201d to introduce healthy eating into her children\u2019s diets. For example, \u201cthe children have to try a piece of everything that I serve,\u201d she said. \u201cThey don\u2019t have to like it, and they don\u2019t have to finish it if they don\u2019t like it, but they do have to try everything that comes to the table.\u201d That includes fruits and vegetables.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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An Opportunity for Positive Parenting<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis study was elegantly simple and creates a potential low-cost solution to a common problem \u2014 how to get your kid to eat more fruits and veggies,\u201d said Ellen Rome, MD, MPH, head of the Center for Adolescent Medicine at Cleveland Clinic Children\u2019s Hospital and professor of pediatrics at Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe key finding is not surprising and hopefully is reproducible at home,\u201d Rome said. \u201cEven 10 more minutes of a non-rushed meal allowed a few more bites of available food on their plates in, which can help a kid feel more full, cutting down on the need to snack as much later on likely more energy-dense foods.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

An important takeaway \u201cis that family mealtimes are a chance to do positive parenting and increase the opportunity for your child to get the right foods in, in the right balance,\u201d Rome said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is also a time to role model how to have a conversation, how to check in, how to share the memorable events of the day, both sad and glad, and how to laugh together,\u201d she said. \u201cWorthy goals all around!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Read More<\/a>
\n Marquis Kazmierczak<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

April 19, 2023 — Deborah Schranz, a 34-year-old librarian in Teaneck, NJ, has dinner with her family \u2014 including her 3- and 6-year-old sons \u2014 several nights a week, as well as Saturday lunch. Based on her Orthodox Jewish practice, Sabbath lunch is also a formal meal. Friday night and Saturday lunch meals tend to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":631120,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23167,121737],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-631119","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-longer","8":"category-mealtimes"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}