Turning Off TV

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COULEE CONSUMER: Turn off the TV and improve kids’ lives

By MARY MEEHAN-STRUB
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Looking for ways to connect with your children and help them be healthier? Sharing meals together and turning off the television during your meal are two ways for as parents can encourage your children to make healthier food choices, maintain a healthy weight and share family interests and values.

The importance of family meals and limiting the amount of time children spend watching TV have received a lot of attention recently, especially in light of growing concerns about childhood obesity.

Studies conducted at the University of Minnesota, Harvard and Rutgers found that the more often adolescents ate family meals with their parents, the more likely they were to eat fruits, vegetables and calcium-rich foods such as milk and the less likely they were to drink sweetened beverages such as soda.

When the television was off during family meals, adolescents ate more dark green/yellow vegetables and calcium-rich foods, and fewer sweetened beverages than when the television was on during family meals.

We also know that children who are overweight spend more time watching TV than children who are not overweight. Not only are children inactive while watching television, but they also are being exposed to persuasive advertisements for high fat, high sugar foods.

Research has shown that young children who eat with other family members tend to eat more from the basic food groups such as fruits and vegetables. Young children are much more likely to eat vegetables when they see mom or dad eating vegetables.

Family meals also provide opportunities to talk with your child and build family bonds. They may even contribute to young children’s language and brain development and help protect your adolescents against use of tobacco, alcohol and marijuana, poor grades in school, depression, suicide and eating disorders.

With today’s busy lifestyles, it can be difficult to find time to eat together. Parents can start by planning for at least one meal together as a family each week, and try not to let other things interfere. Some families find it’s easier to eat breakfast together than other meals during the day. Other families find weekends to be the best times. Show all of your family members that family meals are important by turning off the television and cell phones.

As a parent you might not have the power to control all of the things in the environment that affect your children’s health and well-being. But you can make a point of eating meals with your children and turning off the television.

Your efforts now to make time for family meals can pay off later because dietary patterns formed in childhood tend to affect food choices later in life, and will establish a model for your children to follow when they become adults and are raising their own children.

For more information or to make comments on the information contained in Coulee Consumer, write to La Crosse County UW-Extension, Attention: Coulee Consumer, 400 N. Fourth St., La Crosse, WI 54601, or call 785-9593.
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