Intersecting perspectives: Advocating for sustainable family meals across generations.

Adolescents in Germany eat fewer animal products than their parents, often for sustainability reasons. We investigated how adolescents differ from their parents' generation in sustainability food-choice motives, consumption of animal products, and corresponding behaviors such as advocating for and influencing decisions towards more sustainable family meals. In an online questionnaire, an educationally diverse sample of 500 adolescents (M = 17.9 years, range = 15-20) and 500 adults of their parents' generation (M = 52.2 years, range = 45-60) reported food-choice motives, their own and their family's diet style, how they advocate for sustainable food decisions at family meals (e.g., less meat), and how they influence different steps in family meal planning (e.g., grocery shopping). The two generations did not differ in sustainable food motives and mean consumption frequency of meat and animal products, but adolescents reported three times more often than their parents' generation to never eat meat. At shared family meals they advocated for eating plant-based substitutes (d = 0.27, p < 0.001) and other animal products (ß = -0.15, p = 0.02) more often than their parents' generation, but not for eating less meat. Adolescents advocated more frequently for sustainable food decisions at shared meals the more important sustainability motives were to them (ß = 0.53, p < 0.001), and the less meat (ß = -0.35, p < 0.001) and fewer other animal products (ß = -0.11, p = 0.015) they consumed. Adolescents motivated towards sustainability have the potential to impact the family's dietary choices through reverse socialization processes. These findings challenge current theories that suggest only parents influence their children, neglecting the role of adolescents as potential agents of change for improved family and planetary health.

Effect of Longer Family Meals on Children's Fruit and Vegetable Intake: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Family meals are a formative learning environment that shapes children's food choices and preferences. As such, they are an ideal setting for efforts to improve children's nutritional health. Objective: To examine the effect of extending the duration of family meals on the fruit and vegetable intake in children. Design, Setting, and Participants: This randomized clinical trial used a within-dyad manipulation design and was conducted from November 8, 2016, to May 5, 2017, in a family meal laboratory in Berlin, Germany. Included in the trial were children aged 6 to 11 years who did not follow a special diet or have food allergies and adult parents who served as the nutritional gatekeeper in the household (ie, the family member responsible for at least half of the food planning and preparation). All participants underwent 2 conditions: control, defined as regular family mealtime duration, and intervention, defined as 50% longer mealtime duration (10 minutes longer on average). Participants were randomized to the condition they would complete first. Statistical analyses of the full sample were conducted between June 2 and October 30, 2022. Interventions: Participants had 2 free evening meals under different conditions. In the control or regular condition, each dyad ate in the same amount of time as their reported regular mealtime duration. In the intervention or longer condition, each dyad had 50% more time to eat than their reported regular mealtime duration. Main Outcomes and Measures: The primary outcome was the number of pieces of fruits and vegetables eaten by the child during a meal. Results: A total of 50 parent-child dyads participated in the trial. Parents had a mean (range) age of 43 (28-55 years) years and were predominantly mothers (36 [72%]). Children had a mean (range) age of 8 (6-11) years and included an equal number of girls and boys (25 [50%]). Children ate significantly more pieces of fruits (t49 = 2.36, P = .01; mean difference [MD], 3.32 [95% CI, 0.96 to ∞]; Cohen d = 0.33) and vegetables (t49 = 3.66, P < .001; MD, 4.05 [95% CI, 2.19 to ∞]; Cohen d = 0.52) in the longer condition than in the regular mealtime duration condition. Consumption of bread and cold cuts did not significantly differ between conditions. The children's eating rate (bites per minute over the regular mealtime duration) was significantly lower in the longer than in the regular condition (t49 = -7.60, P < .001; MD, -0.72 [95% CI, -0.56 to ∞]; Cohen d = 1.08). Children reported significantly higher satiety after the longer condition (V = 36.5, P < .001). Conclusions and Relevance: Results of this randomized clinical trial suggest that the simple, low-threshold intervention of increasing family mealtime duration by approximately 10 minutes can improve the quality of children's diet and eating behavior. The findings underscore the potential for such an intervention to improve public health. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03127579.

Happy and healthy: How family mealtime routines relate to child nutritional health.

Children eat most of their meals in a family context, making family meals a key environment in which to learn about healthy food. What makes a family meal "healthy"? This diary study examined the practice of seven family mealtime routines (e.g., positive mealtime atmosphere, parental modeling, and longer meal duration) and their predictive value for children's healthier nutrition focusing on everyday family meal settings. Over 7 consecutive days, parents from N = 310 families (Mage = 42 years) described their most important family meal of the day and food intake for an index child (Mage = 9 years) and indicated what mealtime routines were practiced during the family meal. On average, each parent responded to 5.6 (SD = 1.4) of seven daily surveys. Mean correlations between mealtime routines were small (rs between -0.14 and 0.25), suggesting independent and distinct routines. Creating a positive atmosphere and turning TV and smartphones off were reported most often (on average, 91.2% and 90.5%, respectively). Parent's fruit and vegetable intake and creating a positive mealtime atmosphere were the strongest predictors for children's higher nutritional quality (i.e., higher vegetable and fruit intake; ps < .001). Findings indicate that mealtime routines obtained from independent meta-analyses represent distinct routines. Families practiced these independent and distinct routines to different degrees. Parental modeling and a positive mealtime atmosphere were most predictive of healthier child nutrition in daily family meal settings. More experimental research is needed to better understand causality and provide a better basis for effective interventions.