{"id":414194,"date":"2024-09-09T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-09T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=414194"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"5-Reasons-Family-Meals-are-a-Recipe-for-Success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/5-Reasons-Family-Meals-are-a-Recipe-for-Success\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Reasons Family Meals are a Recipe for Success"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><h2>5 Reasons Family Meals are a Recipe for Success<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p>(Family Features) Americans face a lack of social connection that poses a significant risk to individual health and longevity, according to the U.S. Surgeon General.<\/p>\n<p>Address the epidemic of loneliness by joining the Family Meals Movement and sharing a meal with friends and family today.<\/p>\n<p><h2>Watch this video to learn how you can join the Family Meals Movement!<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/BAhz9vVoudI?si=wXF9dnn3zV-juvDH\" title=\"YouTube video player\" width=\"560\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Encourage Togetherness<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Research finds the more people eat together, the better they function. Specifically, frequent shared family meals improve connectedness, communication, expressiveness and problem-solving. Conversation is key during family meals to take advantage of the one-on-one time without distractions.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Strengthen Mental Health<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Family meals also support mental health, restoring a sense of peace, bolstering self-esteem, increasing happiness and boosting a sense of resilience.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Enhance Nutrition<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Research shows family meals improve fruit and vegetable consumption. It also indicates families who eat together frequently have a better overall healthy diet and lower body mass index.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Boost Academic Performance<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Eating more meals together is associated with improved overall adolescent health, including higher grades. Multiple studies show students whose families eat together frequently perform better academically in reading and vocabulary.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Model Civility<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The family dinner table is a great place to show younger generations how to communicate respectfully. In fact, 76% of Americans agreed family meals are a good opportunity to have and teach respectful interactions, according to the FMI Foundation\u2019s \u201cStaying Strong with Family Meals\u201d Barometer.<\/p>\n<p>Learn more about the physical, mental and social benefits of family meals at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fmi.org\/family-meals-movement\/?utm_source=familyfeatures&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=#17114-FMIFoundation\">familymealsmovement.org<\/a><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">.<\/span> Share how you\u2019re participating by tagging #familymealsmonth and #familymealsmovement on social media.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ssl.google-analytics.com\/collect?v=1&amp;tid=UA-482330-7&amp;cid=1955551e-1975-5e52-0cdb-8516071094cd&amp;sc=start&amp;t=pageview&amp;dl=http%3A%2F%2Ftrack.familyfeatures.com%2F17114%2F9426&amp;dt=5-REASONS-FAMILY-MEALS-ARE-A-RECIPE-FOR-SUCCESS\" \/><\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 480px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/images\/imgupload\/330cf41ba744b4861cab533b50cee26a.jpg\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><br \/>5 Reasons Family Meals are a Recipe for Success-Halen Higgins<br \/><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>5 Reasons Family Meals are a Recipe for Success (Family Features) Americans face a lack&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-414194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-and-style"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414194\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}