It can be tricky to get the family together at mealtime, particularly when everyone has various activities. One of the most impactful decisions you can make each day is the choice to eat a healthy meal together as a family. Not only does healthy eating together as a family make your body feel good, but it also helps to support good mental health. This can lead to better decision-making, more positive attitudes, and a higher quality of life all around. Team Up knows a few tricks to get your family to sit down for a healthy meal.
Keep It Convenient
Just because it’s a sit-down family meal doesn’t mean that dinner needs to be complicated. Many people’s favorite foods are simple mainstays or comfort food that can be whipped up in less than an hour. Studies have shown that a person’s favorite comfort dish helps evoke memories, with their accompanying emotions and relationships.
In other words, it’s the social component of food that helps provide stress relief. Even comfort food can be made more healthy. Try to cut back on butter, oils, and sugar in favor of flavorful vegetables, grains, and fruit. Fried foods can be prepared just as easily by baking them, with the added bonus of significantly easier cleanup. Not only will you not have a large pot of scalding hot oil to clean up, if you cover your baking dish or tray with parchment paper, the cleanup becomes a breeze.
Start Cooking from a Familiar Place
Comfort food can be a great way to get your family into the habit of sitting down for dinner. This is important because habitual family dinners have been proven to provide great cognitive and social benefits, among other benefits. For young children, conversing at dinnertime helps grow their vocabulary even more than reading.
Sit-down dinners have also been linked to higher achievement scores — plus, children who regularly consume meals as a family tend to continue the habit into adulthood, and are statistically less likely to become obese.
According to Parents, eating dinner as a family helps improve familial relationships and creativity, particularly when new, exciting, and most importantly healthy dishes are brought into the mix.
Explore New Flavors While Reducing Stress
Even if your children and spouse/partner are traditionally picky eaters, the sheer habit of eating around a table will help to curb the pickiness. You can use this as an opportunity to explore new flavors and seek out seasonal vegetables that provide a healthy boost. A whole-food diet that consists of plenty of fresh vegetables and fruit can help support your immune system while also reducing stress.
In general, Blue Zones notes that healthy eating has been correlated with greater overall happiness. How we eat and drink, as well as how we cope with stress, depression, sadness, and anxiety, significantly affects our mental health — whether we realize it or not.
Create a healthy and low-stress lifestyle by making small changes in your routines rather than making sweeping changes. This advice can work well within families who are more used to a sitting-on-the-couch lifestyle but know they desire a change.
Don’t Forget About the Snacks!
Health is all about bringing your body into a state of balance. Make sure that your children or spouse don’t immediately fall back into old habits and grab a sugary or salty snack when away from the family dinner table. Mash up fruit with a little water and freeze the resulting slush to make homemade freezer pops. Have easy vegetables like carrots or celery on hand for a quick crunch.
When it comes to fruits, summer is the peak season for many varieties, so try to replace candy with fresh fruit. Also, if you know you’re going to be away from the house at lunch or dinner time, plan in advance by preparing and packing a meal. Sandwiches are a simple standby (use whole-grain bread instead of white bread), but you can also pack a salad or grain bowl. Call it a picnic to get everyone excited!
If you have the time and space, maybe you can consider growing a snack garden for the kids. The kids can decide what they want to grow, and they will also be responsible for taking care of the plants. You can spend quality time together tending to the garden, and when it’s time to harvest, the kids will get to eat the organic produce they made with their own hands.
Family Dinners for Family Health
No matter the season, it’s possible to eat healthy meals if you prepare them in advance. By bringing everyone together each night for a family meal, you can help support both their physical and mental health. Science shows that the family meal can develop your familial relationships, and you can do it while exploring the culinary world, all from a healthy point of view.
