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Happy Thanksgiving Day with family. Family sitting at Thanksgiving dinner table at home. Traditional holiday food. Autumn feast. Celebrating Thanksgiving with big happy family. Generative AI.
Thanksgiving.
While we celebrate this tradition of food, family, and friends once a year, research suggests some of our Thanksgiving Holiday practices could deliver physical and mental health for your entire family throughout the year.
The best part?
You don’t even have to leave the table.
You do however, have to come to the table.
With your careers, kids, and commitments, meals can turn into an “everyone for themselves” affair.
After all, your meeting went late, your spouse is traveling for work, soccer practice just moved to another field, and oh yah, you forgot you volunteered for snack shack.
Cue 7pm pizza delivery.
The good news is that even if your family meal choices are less than “energizing” when things get crazy, not all is lost from a health standpoint.
If you eat the meal together, uninterrupted by devices or television, some good stuff still happens according to researchers.
For one, if you can throw some extra fruits/veggies into the mix, the odds are A LOT higher than your kids will eat them if you’re at the table together.
They’ve found this to be true to other quality sources of protein, grain, fruits, and other foods that drive health and energy.
If you’re willing to put away your phones and turn off the TV for a few minutes, both adults and kids are less likely to overeat AND report enjoying the meal more.
Family meals are good for mental health as well.
Adults and adolescents who eat dinner with their families on a regular basis report lower levels of stress and more positive family interactions.
The minimal recommended effective dose is at least 3 meals per week, at least 10 minutes per meal.
There’s evolutionary, biological, and psychological theories as to why the act of eating together is so important.
But…
If you think about it, what better way to bring meaning to your day than to share one of life’s necessities with your heart’s top priorities?
