Family Dinner Week

Family Day was celebrated nationwide on Monday, September 26 2011, but it doesn’t end here. The beauty of family dinners is they make a difference any day of the year!  Family day was established in 2001 by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University to encourage family engagement and foster the many benefits it can yield.   http://casafamilyday.org/familyday/

Families who eat together have a lot to gain:

“The benefits of sharing three or more family mealtimes per week includes a reduction in the odds for being overweight (12 percent), eating unhealthy foods (20 percent), and disordered eating (35 percent) and an increase in the odds for eating healthy (24 percent). http://ow.ly/6GSY1

Children and adolescents who consume frequent family meals not only have better overall diet quality, they have a decreased risk of substance abuse and higher scholastic scores, too

If you do not engage your children in the preparation of dinner and in conversation this is a great week to start.   

Here are two recipes the family can enoy preparing and eating together!
VegetableTurkey Chili
Chile CheeseCorn Muffins