Who would have imagined that children who ate meals with their families were less likely to become fat than those who didn't? New research says for every family meal skipped during a week there's an eight per cent increase in the chances of a child becoming overweight.
Apart from the health benefits of home-cooked meals, what matters is the basic sense of psychological stability that children get from sitting with their family. They feel they have a support system and parents get the opportunity to study problem signs if any. "When children eat with their parents, they tend to control their portions," nutritionist Neelanjana Singh said. "Parents can also watch over them."
This is a relevant information for Indian parents. An AIIMS study last year said roughly 20 per cent of school-going kids in the country were fat. Scientists said today's generation of obese children will live shorter lives than their parents and would be prone to cardiac diseases and hypertension.
Getting children to eat healthy food and get exercise might sound simple, but genetic, cultural and environmental factors behind childhood obesity are complicated. Apart from the genetic makeup, experts blame parents' food habits and cultural differences in portion size. More recently, new and surprising drivers of obesity such as frequency of family meals and sleep schedules have been identified.
While junk food and lack of physical activity are known causes of childhood obesity, irregular sleeping patterns are to be blamed too, experts said. A recent study in the journal Pediatrics found that children who got less than the recommended hours of sleep or had irregular sleeping habits suffered from childhood obesity cardiovascular problems and diabetes.