Be One on One: The Most Surprising Diet Tip of The Year--Gather Your Family Around the Table For Mealtimes.

The more I learn about food and nutrition, the more convinced I become that our food culture is tightly interconnected with eating a healthy diet. A disturbing trend is that cooking and eating together as a family is growing more infrequent, and in many ways, it is impacting our younger generations. Though health press is focused on calories, macro/micronutrients, specific foods that are “good” and “bad,” and new diet fads, the scientific aspect of food and how it is processed through the body is only part of the story. In fact, how we eat is just as important as what we eat. The food culture in the US has evolved from cooking from “scratch” to eating on the go, at restaurants, fast food shops and microwaveable meals—these examples are what I mean by “how we eat.”


There is no question that the myriad of alternatives to home food preparation impacts the overall quality what we eat as well as influencing the food culture that we establish for ourselves and our families.  The value in making food and eating together is multi-dimensional. It encourages families to spend more quality time together, and provides opportunities to teach children where food comes from and exposes them to a wide range of natural whole foods. When we make our meals, we are also improving the quality of what we are eating and facilitating good eating habits.  In addition, it is very important to give kids a positive reference for what foods they should eat since they are constantly bombarded with advertising persuading them to eat junk. It is much easier to counter advertiser’s influence on your children, if you involve them in the process and eat healthy, whole foods with them.** (see note below)


One time of the year we seem to do this better.  Around the holidays, our traditions bring us back together in the kitchen. Since Thanksgiving is quickly approaching--a time when many of us still prepare traditional and special dishes for each other--I have been thinking about the immeasurable value of homemade meals to our lives and to our health. Perhaps we could improve our diets year round by incorporating some of the holiday meal spirit to our eating approach.


Cooking and eating holiday meals with my family is a treasured tradition. Thanksgiving and Christmas are two of the only times in the year that my family and I get to cook together now that I am living on my own-- a plane ride away. Since my first true cooking experiences were helping my mom cook ambitious holiday feasts, I give a lot of credit for my ability to cook to the lessons I learned in a holiday kitchen.


To achieve this holiday spirit all year long, try incorporating these “holiday cooking” approaches to your other meals.  Think of all of your meals as special because each and every meal provides nourishment, comfort, and health to your body.  Treating each meal this way does not mean each meal will take an unreasonable amount of time or expense. Approaching all meals as a holiday experience is simply a recognition of the importance of a meal and a priority to feed ourselves and our families well. It is an easy habit to adopt if you follow these tips:


Eat together around the table instead of in front of the television, and actually talk to each other instead of zoning out and mindlessly eating. This actually helps you enjoy the meal and reduces after dinner eating. It also keeps you in touch with your body and enables you to better judge when you are satisfied.


Make more of the meal the real way, from scratch, and use fewer processed ingredients.  This actually will improve as you experience each ingredient component, this process reinforces your desire to continue to eat a healthy meal and processed food becomes a less satisfying and desirable alternative.


Involve the family in the process, from teaching kids how to do things to letting them be a part of deciding what to make and doing it together. Just telling your kids to eat healthy because it is “good for them” isn’t enough to make them want to do it. However, if you involve them in the process and make it fun, they will be more likely to cooperate.  They may also learn to look forward to the activity and time together and exposing them to healthy choices early on will help them make better decisions on their own.


Use seasonal foods all year.  It makes sense to most of us to eat squash or winter herbs around the holidays, maybe since it is traditional, but it is also much healthier to eat food in season.  When you eat seasonally, you can eat more of your food from local sources, which has immense nutritional benefit as well as being cheaper and more environmentally conscious.


Plan ahead. Obviously it is necessary to plan ahead with an elaborate meal, but being proactive about all of your meals at home will help greatly in your ability to stick to your home-cooked approach, reduce the cost and increase the likelihood that your meals will be well balanced since you will have the ingredients you need.  If you have your ingredients ready to go and the recipe handy, it might not seem as tempting to stop at the drive through out of convenience.  


**If you are interested in learning more about the effects of advertising on our subconsious food choices, read my next blog where I discuss why we should all be aware of the power of persuasion of marketers selling food products.