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Master of Public Health

Beyond the dinner table: who's having breakfast, lunch and dinner family meals and which meals are associated with better diet quality and BMI in pre-school children?

AUTHORS

Berge JM , Truesdale KP , Sherwood NE , Mitchell N , Heerman WJ , Barkin S , Matheson D , Levers-Landis CE , French SA , . Public health nutrition. 2017 12 ; 20(18). 3275-3284
  • NIHMSID: 9808463

ABSTRACT

Having frequent family dinners is associated with better diet quality in children; however, it is unknown whether the frequency of certain family meal types (i.e. dinner) is more strongly associated with better child weight and diet quality compared with other meal types (i.e. breakfast, lunch). Thus, the current study examined the frequency of eating breakfast, lunch or dinner family meals and associations with pre-school children’s overall diet quality (HEI-2010) and BMI percentile.

Having frequent family dinners is associated with better diet quality in children; however, it is unknown whether the frequency of certain family meal types (i.e. dinner) is more strongly associated with better child weight and diet quality compared with other meal types (i.e. breakfast, lunch). Thus, the current study examined the frequency of eating breakfast, lunch or dinner family meals and associations with pre-school children’s overall diet quality (HEI-2010) and BMI percentile.

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