Family Meals and Nutritional Well-Being

Family meals represent a cornerstone in the cultivation of healthy eating patterns and broader psychosocial well-being across the lifespan. Regular shared meals provide a structured environment in which parents and children can interact, model healthful choices and reinforce positive attitudes towards nutrition. Evidence indicates that higher meal frequency is associated with improved dietary quality, characterised by greater consumption of fruits, vegetables and nutrient-dense foods, and reduced intake of energy-dense, nutrient-poor items. Beyond nutritional benefits, family meals foster a supportive atmosphere that can mitigate stress, enhance life satisfaction and reduce risk behaviours among adolescents and young adults. This dual impact on physical health and mental well-being underlines the global relevance of family meals as both a public health strategy and a focus for intervention development. Research into these dynamics has explored socioeconomic factors, gender differences and contextual influences such as screen use during meals, offering insights into barriers and facilitators of regular shared eating occasions. Interventions range from community-based cooking programmes to technology-assisted feedback models, all seeking to optimise the quantity and quality of family meals and, by extension, to support child cardiovascular health, weight management and psychosocial resilience.

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Family Meals and Nutritional Well-Being publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in family meals and nutritional well-being across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Family meal frequency: Number of occasions per week that household members share a main meal together.

Dietary quality: An assessment of nutrient density and balance in an individual’s diet relative to established dietary guidelines.

Ecological momentary intervention: Delivery of real-time prompts or feedback in a participant’s natural environment to encourage health-promoting behaviours.

Psychosomatic complaints: Physical symptoms, such as headaches or stomachaches, that are influenced or exacerbated by psychological stressors.

References

1. Family Mealtimes: A Systematic Umbrella Review of Characteristics, Correlates, Outcomes and Interventions. Nutrients (2023).
2. Associations between dietary behaviours and the mental and physical well-being of Swedish adolescents. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health (2024).
3. A three-arm randomized controlled trial using ecological momentary intervention, community health workers, and video feedback at family meals to improve child cardiovascular health: the Family Matters study design. BMC Public Health (2023).
4. Associations between children's diet quality and watching television during meal or snack consumption: A systematic review. Maternal and Child Nutrition (2017).
5. Gender differences in family meal frequency and their association with substance use and mental health among middle and high school students. Frontiers in Public Health (2023).