Meridian Magazine: Food Bytes 4: Media Reports on How Our Eating Habits Affect Our Families and Our Health

Food Bytes 4: Media Reports on How Our Eating Habits Affect Our Families and Our Health
By Janet Peterson

Much of the teaching and relationship building in families takes place in those brief, unplanned moments during our daily routine. The dinner table is a place to connect with each other, share daily activities, listen to and encourage each other, and even laugh together. I know laughter lightens the load. Dear mothers and fathers, make a regular mealtime for the people you love.

We can build faith as we hold weekly family home evening, engage in mealtime discussion — sisters, that means you cook and eat together as a family as often as possible.

Bonnie D. Parkin,“Noble Women, Righteous Lives:
Building Faith and Family,"Spring 2006 Open House,4.

Every day she [Grandmother Mildred Hunter Cox] embodied the notion that great food, prepared with love, is one of the greatest gifts we can give each other...

And ultimately food is an immense source of personal enjoyment; from the visual beauty of food itself, to the first taste of a dish as its flavors explode across the taste buds, to the joy of sharing a great dining experience with friends and loved ones.

Lance W. Duffin, quoted in Valerie Phillips,
“Food Photos are a Feast for the Eyes,”
Deseret Morning News, Aug. 30, 2006, C-1.

“Family relationships are formed when you are in a place with your family that everyone wants to be,” said E. Jeffrey Hill, an associate professor in the BYU School of Family Life...

“Dinner time has one thing going for it,” he added — everyone will get hungry. “People are going to want to be there ... It is hard to create those times with our busy world.

“For that reason,” he said, “family meal time should be a pleasant time. Don't use meal time for conflict resolution or to bring up things that are negative,” he said.

Research indicates that eating regular family meals together creates and sustains a sense of “family closeness, cohesion, connection, bonding and feelings of group membership.”

Sarah Jane Weaver, “Family mealtime creates unity,”
Church News , Dec. 9, 2006.

Want to drug-proof your kids and improve their grades? Eat dinner at home. Researchers say children who eat regular family meals are twice as likely to get A's in school, 45 percent less likely to try alcohol and half as likely to be highly stressed or suffer from boredom.

Family dinners sound easy enough — until it comes time to cook. To make family meals a reality day in and day out, busy parents need more than statistics. We need quick, flexible recipes that our families will love.

Beverly Mills, with Alicia Ross,
“Families that eat together raise better kids,”
Deseret Morning News, Sept, 20, 2006, C -2.

The technology consulting company Accenture is developing a system called “The Virtual Family Dinner” that would allow families to get together — virtually — as often as they like.

The concept is simple. An elderly woman in, say, California, makes herself dinner. When she gets ready to sit down and eat, the system detects it and alerts her son in Chicago. The son then goes to his kitchen, where a small camera and microphone capture what he is doing. Speakers and a screen — as big as a television or as small as a picture frame — allow him to hear and see his mother, who has a similar setup.

“We are trying to really bring back the kind of family interactions we used to take for granted,” said Dadong Wan, a senior researcher in Accenture Ltd.'s Chicago labs.

Experts say such interactions could address a growing problem: Elderly people who eat alone often don't eat enough or eat the wrong kinds of food. It can trigger a host of physical and mental problems that eventually can become life-threatening ...

Don Baldwin, “High tech to serve up ‘Virtual Family Dinner' for the elderly,” Associated Press in Deseret Morning News,
December 24, 2006, A-12.

“There is something about a shared meal—not some holiday blowout, not once in a while but regularly, reliably—that anchors a family even on nights when the food is fast and the talk cheep and everyone has someplace else they'd rather be. And on those evenings when the mood is right and the family lingers, caught up in an idea or an argument explored in a shared safe place where no one is stupid or shy or ashamed, you get a glimpse of the power of this habit and why social scientists say such communion acts as a kind of vaccine, protecting kids from all manner of harm. . . .

“Beyond promoting balance and variety in kids' diets, meals together send the message the citizenship in a family entails certain standards beyond individual whims. This is where a family builds its identity and culture. Legends are passed down, jokes rendered, eventually the wider world examined through the lens of a family's values. In addition, younger kids pick up vocabulary and a sense of how conversation is structured. They hear how a problem is solved, learn to listen to other peoples' concerns and respect their tastes.”

That's the implication of a new study that says Americans are burning nearly 1 billion more gallons of gasoline each year than they did in 1960 because of their expanding waistlines. Simply put, more weight in the car means lower gas miles ...

The same effect has been seen in airplanes. Research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that heavy fliers have contributed to higher fuel costs for airlines.

The obesity rate among U.S. adults doubled from 1987 to 2003, from about 15 percent to more than 30 percent. Also, the average weight for American men was 191 pounds in 2002 and 164 pounds for women, about 25 pounds heavier than in 1960, government figures show.

Lindsey Tanner, “Extra girth costs a bit extra at the gas pump,” Associated Press, Deseret Morning News, Oct. 26, 2006.

As childhood obesity rates climb, the food industry needs to improve the way it markets its products to children, according to a government report ...

The report, from the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Health and Human Services, urges food companies to develop products that are more nutritious and to “review and revise” their marketing practices. It also suggests that the Children's Advertising Review Unit, which is regulated by the industry, consider creating minimum nutrition standards for foods advertised to children.

Melanie Warner, “Feds urge overhaul of children's food marketing,” New York Times News Service, in Deseret Morning News , May 3, 2006, A-1.

Many young children are too heavy for standard car-safety seats, and manufacturers are starting to make heftier models to accommodate them, according to research on the obesity epidemic's widening impact.

More than a quarter of a million U.S. children ages 1 to 6 are heavier than the weight limits for standard car seats, and most are 3-year-olds, who weigh more than 40 pounds, the study found.

Unless exceptionally tall, a 3-year-old weighing more than 40 pounds would generally be considered overweight ...

Using inadequate car seats for heavy children could put them at increased risk for injury in a car accident, the researchers said.

Lindsey Tanner, “Obese kids need heftier car seats,”
Associated Press, in Deseret Morning News, Apr. 3, 2006, A-2.

Pudgy toddlers face a good chance of becoming overweight 12-year-olds, according to government research that shoots down the notion that kids just naturally outgrow early chubbiness.

Children who were overweight at age 2 or later during their preschool years faced a five times higher risk of being overweight at age 12 than youngsters who were not overweight early on, the study found. Sixty percent of the children who were overweight at any time during the preschool period were overweight at age 12.

“Study: Kids might not outgrow pudge,”
Salt Lake Tribune, Sept. 5, 2006, A-2

Those heaping portions at restaurants — and doggie bags for the leftovers — may be a thing of the past, if health officials get their way.

The government is trying to enlist the help of the nation's eateries in fighting obesity. One of the first things on their list: cutting portion sizes.

The report, requested and funded by the Food and Drug Administration, lays out ways to help people manage their intake of calories from the growing number of meals prepared away from home ...

Americans now consume fully one-third of their daily intake of calories outside the home ... The average American took in 300 more calories a day than was the case 15 years earlier ...

The report encourages restaurants to shift the emphasis of their marketing to lower-calorie choices, and include more such options on menus. In addition, restaurants could jigger portion sizes and the variety of foods available in mixed dishes.

Bundling meals with more fruits and vegetables also could improve nutrition. And letting consumers know how many calories are contained in a meal also could guide the choices they make.

Andrew Bridges, “Eateries urged to reduce
portions — and obesity,” Associated Press in
Deseret Morning News, June 3, 2006, A-2.

We've all read about skyrocketing rates of obesity, diabetes, and high cholesterol in children and adolescents. But the most surprising thing I've noticed is the link between a bad diet and kids diagnosed with attention deficit disorder.

Recently, I had a mom come in with her 12-year-old son because the school told her that he has ADD. I started to take a medical history, and I asked what her son eats for breakfast. She said, “Usually sugary cereal, or sometimes we'll stop at Starbucks and he'll have a donut.” Whether or not her son has an attention deficit problem, there's no way he can do his best work with a breakfast like that. So the mom made some adjustments. Getting up a half hour earlier to scramble some eggs and toast was an effort. But her son managed to turn his performance around. Is he the best student in the class? No, but his teachers have noticed that he focuses better and is improving. A child's brain is developing even well into adolescence, and he needs the right kid of food to help it work its best.

Walecia Konrad, “So long, soda ... hello fruit:
Advice from Dr. Sears on getting your kids to eat right,” Good Housekeeping, October 2006, 122. (Quoting William Sears, M.D., author of The Healthiest Kid in the Neighborhood .)

Most restaurant chefs are serving up portions that are two to four times bigger than the government's recommended serving sizes.

They know these large amounts are supersizing their diners, but they believe customers expect big platefuls of food when eating out, according to a survey of 300 chefs presented here over the weekend of the annual meeting of the Obesity Society.

This confirms other research: A typical restaurant meal has at least 60% more calories than the average meal made at home, according to the NPD Group, a market research firm. And Americans purchased 209 meals a person from restaurants last year, both eating at restaurants and buying takeout, NPD says.

Portions served at restaurants have steadily increased since the 1970s in tandem with the rise in obesity rates, says Barbara Rolls, a nutrition professor at Pennsylvania State University.

Nanci Hellmich, “Chefs dish it out, and then some,”
USA Today , October 23, 2006, 4D.

Nearly one in three Americans has high blood pressure, and 90 percent of us will eventually develop it if we continue eating and living the way we do now. In addition to a healthier heart, some research has linked a limited-salt diet to few headaches, better cognitive function and lower risk of painful stomach ulcers. And then there's bloat: Since salt make you retain water, too much of it makes you look like you've packed on a few pounds. Who doesn't want to look leaner? ...

More than 75 percent of our sodium intake comes from processed foods and those eaten outside the home ... Since the only way to control the amount of sodium in your food is to know what's in it, prepare meals yourself whenever you can.”

“Health,” Family Circle , August 2006, 126.

Order from a menu of vegetables, fish ... and chocolate, but hold the trans fats and sugary sodas. That might best sum up the diet headlines of 2006.

The year's biggest nutrition news sometimes echoed what moms and food scientists have been harping on for years. Other times, it seemed too good to be true.

The year started out sweet — more data suggesting dark chocolate might be good for the heart — and ended with trans fats grabbing big headlines — New York City became the first in the nation to ban these unhealthy fats in restaurant food.

Studies show:

Chocolate might be good for the heart.
Diets high in fatty fish might also reduce risks for a major cause of age-related vision loss.
A heart-healthy Mediterranean-style diet heavy on fish instead of meat, along with lots of vegetables and grains, appeared to protect against Alzheimer's disease.

Lindsey Tanner, “ ‘06 diet wrap: chocolate, fish, veggies,”
Associated Press, in
Deseret Morning News, Jan 2, 2007. A-2.

Girls are more likely to become overweight in those preteen years [9 to 12] than when they are teenagers, researchers report ... in The Journal of Pediatrics …

Chubby tweens already were seeing their blood pressure and cholesterol levels inch up, backing up earlier research that fat's toll on the arteries begins early. Also, being overweight in childhood brought more than a tenfold risk of a youngster's growing into a fat adult.

Parents should pay attention to creeping waistlines and poor dietary habits, particularly in this age group. ...

Some 17 percent of U.S. youngsters are obese and millions more are overweight, a problem affecting all ages. Overweight children are at risk of developing diabetes and they grow into overweight adults who, in turn, develop heart disease and other ailments ...

Other research has shown that the preteen years are when youngsters switch from heeding parents' dietary advice to eating like their friends do ... Less physical activity plays a role, too.”

Lauran Neergard, “Girls ages 9-12 face special risk of fat,”
Associated Press in Deseret Morning News, Jan. 8, 2007.

At a time when New Year's resolutions beg for less eating out and more dieting, the Utah Restaurant Association is planning to send a different message — and it's aim is to make you salivate.

The association will start broadcasting a television campaign across the state with the theme: “Let's eat out.” The commercial will have nine different ways of appealing to different demographics, but the messages will be the same — “Whatever your reason, get out and eat.”

The idea is: Eating food is better than paying more taxes.

As local governments wrestle with the prospect of increasing the restaurant tax to pay for myriad public projects, Melva Sine, president of the Utah Restaurant Association is posing another option ...

“We came up with a program that will help get more restaurant tax money into the counties to help them do the great programs that they're doing, and at the same time benefit the (restaurant) industry.”

Amy Choate-Nielsen, “Tax break for eating out often?”
Desert Morning News, Jan. 10, 2007, B-1.

The consequences of poor eating go beyond a simple question of weight. Food choices can contribute to diabetes, heart disease, even some cancers. And they can impact whether you feel energetic or sluggish.

“There are many health consequences to unhealthy eating patterns,” says Holly Doetsch, registered dietitian and medical educator at Primary Children's Medical Center. Her list ranges from emotional consequences such as poor self-esteem and depression found in some who are overweight to physical ailments. On the flip side, certain foods, such as those rich in antioxidants, can help ward off disease ...

“One of the most important tips is to have regular family meals,” she says. “Families that eat together are less likely to be overweight. They tend to eat out less, watch less television, have real conversations and improve relationships. The quality of the diet is usually better and they eat slower ...”

Parents need to be role models of healthy eating habits. “Eating in the family is a huge social learning environment,” says Doetsch, emphasizing the need for a positive attitude toward a variety of foods.

Lois Collins, “Dietitian offers food for thought,”
Deseret Morning News, Jan. 12, 2007, B-1.