Eat with your kids to boost their vegetable intake

    Eating meals together as a family, even once or twice a week, increases children’s daily fruit and vegetable intake, according to the researchers at the University of Leeds.

Children, who always ate a family meal together at a table consumed 125g (1.5 portions) more fruit and vegetables on average than children who never ate with their families. Even those who reported eating together only once or twice a week consumed 95g (1.2 portions) more than those who never ate together.

Even if it’s just one family meal a week, when children eat together with parents or older siblings they learn about eating. Watching the way their parents or siblings eat and the different types of food they eat is pivotal in creating their own food habits and preferences

p. 10, 23 Dec 2012, Hindustan Times (Mumbai), http://paper.hindustantimes.com/epaper/viewer.aspx