Why should our family eat together?

What's really true about family dinnertime is that sharing a sit-down dinner three or more days a week can transform everyone's health and brighten your children's future. If lower blood pressure and reduced risk of cancer and heart disease are not incentive enough, consider this: Dishing up dinner will improve your family ties, improve your love life, and boost your kids' health, self-esteem, and grades. Pass the broccoli, please!

Here are the facts on eating healthy meals at home:

• Thirty-five percent of kids who have two or fewer meals a week with the family smoke tobacco and marijuana. Compare this to the kids who have family dinner five to seven times a week; only 12% try marijuana and 14% try cigarettes.
• Home-cooked meals are healthier. They contain less fat and more essential nutrients than the average fast-food meal. (Thirty-three percent of single serving drive-through meals deliver more than half a day's recommended caloric intake.)
• Eating a home-cooked dinner together three or more times a week cuts your risk and your kids' risk of obesity by 12%, and increases healthy-food intake by 24%.

Remember, at home you can control the portion sizes and slow down the pace of your meal -- a simple way to prevent overeating. Good food (not fast food) equals good health, and that means smarter kids -- not to mention burning passion (and burning calories) for mom and dad.