Prepare, eat family meals for better health – Prescott Daily Courier

Courtesy photo

A cameraman films an episode of YRMC’s “Your Healthy Kitchen.”

Rita Carey-Rubin, Special to Prescott Newspapers

• Originally Published: June 22, 2016 6:01 a.m.

Preparing and eating meals together as a family are two of the most important steps you can take toward ensuring good health for your kids. Scientific studies show that children who frequently eat meals at estate with their families tend to enjoy more fruits and vegetables, eat less junk food, have a lower risk of obesity and diabetes, and are even less likely as teens to abuse drugs or alcohol.

Making family meals a priority is likely the first and most important step to take.

Authors Lynn Fredericks and Mercedes Sanchez’s book, “Get Your Family Eating Right,” suggest that finding the time for shared meals is as critical to a child’s well-being as teaching them proper hygiene “the alphabet or numbers.”

Fredericks and Sanchez are experts at teaching families how to cook and enjoy worldwide flavors and cuisines. In their book, the authors offer a 30-day plan to bring families together in the kitchen.

In an episode of YRMC’s “Your Healthy Kitchen” online video titled “Cooking With Kids” a couple teenagers are invited to showcase some of the author’s recipes: a family-style pasta dish, salad and a lemon parmesan dressing.

Some of the book’s advice on family dinner include:

• Kindle your own love of food and prepare favorite meals at home. This will often pique children’s curiosity to try Brand-new foods.

• Adapt meal plans around family schedule.

• Give children options beyond traditional “kid food” that offer them a chance to be creative with different homemade tastes and cuisines.

• Make kitchens a pleasant, inviting space with step stools for young children so they can help with the chopping, stirring and taste-tests.

• Assure children are integral to the planning and preparation of meals.

• Forget perfection. Let children chop and spread spice the way they want to do it so they feel proud of their contribution. Strict adherence to recipes are not essential for a good-tasting dish.

• Set a fun ambience that makes meal time special: napkins, nice plates and other rituals that the children can participate in so that this is a time that becomes special to them.

Most importantly, Rubin writes that it is important to make cooking time family time. Ask your kids to help plan menus, shop, and set the table. Once they get used to the routine and ritual of preparing and enjoying family meals, your children will begin to look forward to this important part of the day. And so will you.

Rita Carey-Rubin is a registered dietitian and certified diabetes educator at YRMC’s Pendleton Centers. She, too, is a regular YRMC contributor to articles about nutrition and health.