Make Family Meals a Priority - Big Y® World Class Market®

Written by Carrie Taylor, RD, LDN

Few and far between are the days of mom and dad preparing home-cooked meals in the kitchen for the family. Quick and convenience are now the norm. If you find your family constantly on the go, running from practice to drive-thru dinners, a time-out may be in order.

Spending time in the kitchen watching family members cook is where many of us began our own love affair with food. We were taught how to properly rinse, cut, mix, bake, etc. We learned to eat slowly and appreciate the different flavors, colors and textures of food. With fewer meals prepared at home, coupled with the disappointing cancellation of Family and Consumer Science classes in some schools, many children are now growing up without ever learning how to cook from scratch, let alone enjoying the sensory qualities of food.

Switch your child’s culinary path and begin preparing meals as a family. There’s no need to become Suzie Homemaker overnight. Simply start by setting aside one to two meals per week to cook together and build from there. These moments will create invaluable lessons on the mastery of cooking, nutrition and appreciation for great-tasting food.

Trading off fast-food dinners for home-cooked meals during the week can have a positive impact on your waistline and wallet. Preparing meals at home is often cheaper and allows for greater control over the nutritional quality of ingredients. For example, instead of regular mayonnaise, you can choose low fat mayonnaise. Instead of rolls made with enriched flour (“white” bread), you can use whole grain rolls.

Here’s an example of the savings you could see:
Fast-Food Fried Fish Sandwich Meal (with French fries and regular soda)
Approximately $5 and provides 970 calories and 37 grams of fat
-vs.-
Made-at-Home Broiled Salmon Fillet Sandwich (with a mixed green salad and water)
Approximately $3 and provides 370 calories and 12 grams of fat

Family meals serve as more than monetary savings and culinary art and nutrition lessons. They also help cultivate solid familial relations by opening the lines of communication between parents and children. The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA®) at Columbia University has found:

• Kids who frequently eat dinner with their families are more likely to have better grades and confide in their parents about personal issues.
• The more often children eat dinner with their families, the less likely they are to smoke, drink or use drugs.

To highlight the importance of family meals, CASA® created Family Day — A Day to Eat Dinner with Your Children™. This year’s Family Day is on September 22. Make it a date! Let September 22 be the first of many standing dates you have to prepare and eat dinner with your family.

With a little bit of perseverance and creativity, you and your children will enjoy and learn from each other while cooking family meals. Remember, every experience, however small, impacts your child’s development and love for food. Bon appétit!

Written by Carrie Taylor, RD, LDN

Have a Question?
e-mail Carrie, Big Y’s Registered Dietitian, at askcarrie@bigy.com or write:
Ask Carrie
2145 Roosevelt Ave
P.O. Box 7840
Springfield, MA 01102