Longer Family Meals Are Healthier Meals for Kids

Longer family mealtimes may be one strategy to get kids to eat healthier, according to a randomized clinical trial that found an improvement in the balance of foods eaten at the table.

Children randomized to spend 50% longer sitting down to family meals — a difference of 10 minutes on average — consumed significantly more fruits and vegetables, found Jutta Mata, PhD, of the University of Mannheim, Germany, and colleagues.

On average, longer family meals induced kids to eat 3.32 more pieces of fruits and 3.66 more pieces of vegetables than those who ate during their regular mealtime duration, the researchers explained in JAMA Network Open.

These additional items totaled about one portion (100 g of food), equivalent to about one medium apple, but appeared to replace other foods without significantly increasing overall consumption.

“This outcome has practical importance for public health because one additional daily portion reduces the risk of cardiometabolic disease by 6% to 7%,” the group wrote.

Of course, to have such an effect, fruits and vegetables have to be available on the table, they noted. “If the effects of this simple, inexpensive, and low-threshold intervention prove stable over time, it could contribute to addressing a major public health problem,” the group said.

In trying to implement longer mealtimes, Mata’s group suggested families can focus on evening meals rather than breakfast so that parents aren’t in a rush. Parents can also try setting transparent rules, like all family members stay at the table for a certain amount of time.

The trial randomized a total of 50 pairs of parents and children to both eating conditions — the regular evening family meal and the 50% longer evening meal — in a randomized order. The average age of children was 8 years (range 6 to 11) and of parents was 43. Children were equally split between boys and girls.

Looking closer, Mata’s group found that kids in the longer mealtime group tended to eat more vegetables from the start, whereas more fruit was consumed during the extra 10 minutes added to the end of the mealtime.

Children who had longer family mealtimes also drank more water, consuming on average 3.70 mL more. That being said, kids also consumed 2.38 mL more sugar-sweetened beverages. In both mealtime settings, kids consumed more sugar-sweetened beverages than water.

Length of family mealtimes wasn’t associated with the amount of bread or cold cuts consumed.

“Higher intake of fruits and vegetables during longer meals cannot be explained by longer exposure to food alone; otherwise, an increased intake of bread and cold cuts would have occurred,” the researchers pointed out. “One possible explanation is that the fruits and vegetables were cut into bite-sized pieces, making them convenient to eat.”

Kids sitting down to longer meals with a parent also chewed slower, taking 7.60 fewer bites per minute than children in the regular meal group. Overall, children with longer family mealtimes reported higher levels of satiety than those in the regular mealtime group. This may also help reduce risk of obesity in kids, Mata’s group suggested.

While kids generally felt fuller, there wasn’t a difference seen in the amount of calories consumed during dessert.

Longer mealtime effects didn’t extend to social benefits, either, as there wasn’t a difference in the time that kids spent engaged in positive interpersonal communication, such as talking about family life or interests, joking, or opening up about emotions.

Nor was there a difference in the self-rated atmosphere, calculated as the proportion of interpersonal communication in milliseconds versus total mealtime.