Family meals help teenage girls form healthy eating habits
Publication Date:07/01/2008
Introduction
Regular family meals may protect teenage girls from unhealthy and extreme weight loss tactics in later years, a new study says. But teenage boys don't seem to get the same benefit.
What do we know already?
As many as a quarter of teenage girls go to extreme lengths to control their weight, for example, making themselves vomit and taking laxatives or diet pills. These types of behaviour can be harmful, preventing girls from getting the nutrients their growing bodies need.
Although this behaviour is most common in girls, some boys do it too. So it's not surprising that researchers are keen to find out what can help protect teenagers from feeling they need to take these extreme measures. One area they have been looking at is regular family meals.
What does the new study say?
The new study shows that girls who eat with their family regularly (at least five times a week) are much less likely to be taking extreme weight control measures five years later. However, regular family meals didn’t seem to have this effect on boys.
At the end of the study, 26 in every 100 girls who hadn’t eaten regular family meals were using extreme weight control measures, like vomiting and taking laxatives or diet pills. But only 17 in every 100 girls who had eaten regular family meals were doing these things.
Far fewer boys were using extreme weight control measures (6 to 7 in 100). And there was no difference between those who had eaten regular family meals and those who had not.
Tell me more about the study's findings
The researchers surveyed 2,500 teenagers (half boys and half girls) about their eating and dieting habits, their families, and their family meals, with questionnaires completed in school. Five years later, they contacted them again by post and asked them to fill in a questionnaire about their eating and dieting habits.
One third of the teenagers were 12 or 13 when the study started, while two thirds were 15 or 16. So they were either 17 to 18, or 20 to 21 when they were surveyed five years later.
As well as looking at extreme weight loss tactics, the researchers asked about other unhealthy weight loss tactics such as skipping meals or eating very little. The figures suggest that family meals may protect teenage girls from using these tactics too, but researchers aren't certain.
Where does this study come from?
The research was carried out by doctors at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, in the USA. It was published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, which is owned by the American Medical Association.
How reliable are the findings?
The main problem with the research is that it relied on teenagers answering all the questions correctly. Also, the researchers couldn't get in touch with all the teenagers to do the follow-up questionnaire. Almost a quarter of the original teenagers didn't complete the follow-up questionnaire.
However, the researchers did a good job to make the figures as reliable as possible. They used statistical techniques to take account of other things that could affect the teenagers' later use of extreme weight loss measures, such as their parents' attitudes to dieting and their family background.
The results for the girls are probably more reliable than for the boys. That's because at the end of the study, more girls were using weight loss measures, so differences between the groups who did or did not have regular family meals were bigger and clearer.
If you're a parent of teenagers, you'll want to help them develop a healthy attitude to weight and to eating. It can be difficult, particularly with peer pressure from their friends and cultural pressure to be thin. But this study suggests that having regular family meals may help, especially teenage girls.
What should I do now?
Regularly eating healthy food together as a family may help your teenagers know what is normal, so they don't feel they have to take extreme measures to control their weight. If you are worried that someone in your family may have an eating disorder, talk to your doctor. Treatments are available that may help.
From:
Neumark-Sztainer D, Eisenberg ME, Fulkerson JA, et al. Family meals and disordered eating in adolescents. Longitudinal findings from Project EAT. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. 2008; 162: 17-22.
To find out more about eating disorders, read our information on anorexia nervosa and bulimia.
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This information does not replace medical advice. If you are concerned you might have a medical problem please ask your Boots pharmacy team in your local Boots store, or see your doctor.
