The dinner is more  than a meal.  Family dinners can even fight obesity.  But, that’s just one of the benefits of having a family dinner together says Dr. Mark Hyman.  He goes so far to say that “Eating at Home Can Save Your Life” and that “THE SLOW INSIDIOUS DISPLACEMENT of home cooked and communally shared family meals by the industrial food system has fattened our nation and weakened our family ties.”

Reconnect through the Family Dinner

Family dinner isn’t just an occasion to fuel  the body, it’ a time to connect and share its decline of it has astounding negative  social implications for our children and families.  If you want to bring your family closer and make them happier and healthier, the family dinner is the place to start.  Just as you schedule time for your work, favorite television shows and exercise,  in the same way, you must set aside time for the family dinner.  “Don’t schedule dinners into your life.  Schedule your life around your family dinners. ” It’s that important!   And, if done right with nutritious whole food, it can be a time of focused healing spiritually,  mentally and physically.  Fewer and fewer young adults even know how to cook anymore.  Food is our medicine and we can’t live without it.  And since we’re going to eat anyway, why not make a healing, educational, and connecting ritual of it?  It’s cheaper than therapy and a lot more enjoyable.

The Loss of Shared Family Meals Have Weakened Family Ties

via How Eating at Home Can Save Your Life by Dr. Mark Hyman

Research shows that children who have regular meals with their parents do better in every way, from better grades, to healthier relationships, to staying out of trouble. They are 42 percent less likely to drink, 50 percent less likely to smoke and 66 percent less like to smoke marijuana. Regular family dinners protect girls from bulimia, anorexia, and diet pills. Family dinners also reduce the incidence of childhood obesity. In a study on household routines and obesity in US pre-school aged children, it was shown that kids as young as four have a lower risk of obesity if they eat regular family dinners, have enough sleep, and don’t watch TV on weekdays.

We complain of not having enough time to cook, but Americans spend more time watching cooking on the Food Network, than actually preparing their own meals.”

If this excerpt interested you, check out the entire article.  You’ll be glad you did.

I’m Barbara Talley, the poet who speaks and inspires.  To find out more about me check out my promo sheet or visit  my website.