To Your Health
April, 2023 (Vol. 17, Issue 04) |
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Get Kids to Slow Down
By Editorial Staff
The reason has nothing to do with avoiding injury risk – bumping heads on doorways, skinning knees on pavement, etc. So, why get your children to slow down? According to new research, it has everything to do with getting them to eat more fruit and vegetables – something most parents struggle with at the nightly dinner table.
The secret: don't let them leave the table. No, we don't mean forcing them to stay there until they "eat all their peas" (a method which has been shown to not work effectively). We're talking about increasing the length of family meal time. Children ages 6-11 ate significantly more fruits and vegetables simply by extending mealtime by an average of 10 minutes (50% longer than the standard, all-too-common-these-days 10-minute meal).
Two other important benefits of extending the meal window: "Eating rate (bites per minute over the regular mealtime duration) was significantly lower in the longer than in the regular condition. ... Children [also] reported significantly higher satiety [meaning they felt full – and presumably would be less likely to snack shortly thereafter] after the longer condition."
While not investigated in the study, findings from which appear in JAMA Network Open, longer family meal time generally also means more time for parents and children to talk, laugh and well, bond; something in increasingly short supply these days as smartphones and social media replace human interaction. So, get your kids to slow down; sure, they'll eat more fruit and vegetables; but they'll also spend more quality time with you.
