Positive, calm and friendly family meals might help a child avoid becoming overweight or obese, a new study suggests.
Children seem to be less likely to add on extra pounds if their family meals feature pleasant conversation, positive encouragement and no disorder caused by kids acting out, University of Minnesota researchers said. For the study, they watched dozens of hours of video recordings of family meals.
"In the households where kids were overweight, there was less of a positive atmosphere at the table," said study author Jerica Berge, a psychologist at the University of Minnesota. "It was a little more chaotic overall."
The study builds on prior research that has linked frequent family meals to a reduced risk of childhood obesity. Berge and her colleagues decided to figure out what occurs at a family meal that might influence that risk, and whether some family meals might have a more positive effect than others.
[For more of this story, written by Dennis Thompson, go to http://consumer.healthday.com/...ids-slim-692600.html]
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