You want the good news, or the bad news first? Okay, first the bad: It's not ideal to regularly eat in front of the television. Now, the good news: eating in front of the television is not as bad as we had previously thought. (Hear that? That's the sound of millions of families turning up their television sets as they breathe a sigh of relief....) When University of Minnesota
researchers began a study of family meals, they were surprised to find that kids who ate while watching T.V. were only marginally less healthy than their non-T.V.-viewing counterparts. Whether the T.V. was on or off during family meals didn't matter nearly as much as having the family sitting down together to eat - whether in the dining room or in the T.V. room, families who eat together eat have healthier kids and diets. Far fewer vegetables and calcium-rich foods are consumed by kids who eat alone, which isn't terribly surprising - is there a kid in the world who would make themselves broccoli for dinner? And interestingly, girls who ate with their families
consumed up to 14 percent more calories than girls who didn't, suggesting possible links between body image, food and family.
So go easy on yourself the next time you sit down to dinner with the T.V. on, and rest assured that if it brings your family together for meal time, then that $100 digital cable bill is totally worth it.
