Dianne Neumark-Sztainer

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One of the first things you can do is eat together as a family, according to U of M epidemiology professor, Dianne Neumark-Sztainer. Working with her students at the U of M, Dr. Neumark-Sztainer and her research team discovered that healthy eating habits (especially for teens) can come from sharing meals at home. Suppertime is the right time for teens to socialize with family members. Parents have the opportunity to teach their kids communication skills, manners, nutrition, and good eating habits. School and work schedules make it difficult for families to eat together. Still, Dr. Neumark-Sztainer says, the effort is worth it. She advises families to take small steps toward increasing the frequency of family meals and not to get discouraged. Her research shows that family meals can play a major role in preventing eating disorders, especially in adolescent girls. Dr. Neumark-Sztainer also found in her research that teens who eat more frequently with their families have better diets, engage in fewer eating disorder behaviors, use less tobacco, alcohol and marijuana, have better grades in school, have higher self-esteem, and exhibit fewer depressive symptoms and suicide tendencies.

Related Articles:

Teens dissatisfied with their bodies are at higher risk for weight gain, poor health.
Adolescents who feel dissatisfied with their bodies are at higher risk for future binge eating, smoking, poor eating and decreased physical activity, according to research from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health.

Family meals benefit health.
Read the Minnesota Daily’s article on the University of Minnesota’s published study on adolescent girls’ eating habits. See how researchers found that this age group is less likely to engage in extreme weight control behaviors when they eat regularly with their families.

Neumark-Sztainer’s book “I’m, Like, So Fat!” is reviewed.
Subtitled “Helping Your Teen Make Healthy Choices About Eating and Exercise in a Weight-Obsessed World”—this highly readable book addresses the spectrum of weight-related problems, identifies four cornerstones of healthy weight and body image, and gives practical guidance, from spotting an eating disorder to learning to talk effectively about food and fat.

Helping your overweight child.
Parents of overweight children want to help their children prevent further weight gain, but they also want to avoid making them feel even worse about their bodies, says Dianne Neumark-Sztainer. From her work on eating disorders and obesity prevention among teenagers, Neumark-Sztainer has found some ways parents can help their overweight children.

Health Talk and You: Health Information for Minnesotans.
In this issue, Dianne Neumark-Sztainer discusses why family meals are so important to adolescents.