Giving Compass' Take:

• Researchers from JAMA Network Open report that family meals and eating together lead to better health benefits for kids and parents despite any emotional strife between them.

• How important are family meals together in family philanthropy dynamics? 

• Read about this nutrition website that helps connect young adults to healthy eating habits. 

Teens whose families eat dinner together are more likely to make healthy food choices, even when kids and parents have issues with communicating and connecting emotionally, a new study finds.

More frequent family dinners were associated with more healthful eating among teens and young adults, even when families were not especially close and had trouble managing daily routines, researchers report in JAMA Network Open.

“Many, many studies have looked at the benefit of family meals, and over and over they have found that this leads to adolescents eating more fruits and vegetables and less fast food and sugar-sweetened beverages,” said Walton, now a research fellow at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.

But, she said, “Critics have suggested that family dysfunction may interrupt the benefits of family meals because it may be harder for low-functioning families to organize and prepare meals or to have healthy foods available in the home . . . .”

Family functioning was measured through a series of nine statements that were to be rated on a 4-point scale, including: Individuals are accepted for who they are; I feel like I can talk about my problems or share a problem; I feel like I am heard in my family.

The researchers found that the more often teens and young adults had dinner with their parents, the more their overall diets included more fruits and vegetables and less fast food and sugary beverages.

Another strategy: assign teens meal prep tasks. “This is especially important in families that are very busy,” Walton said. “Many hands make light work. Also there is the added benefit of learning important food preparation skills.”

“It’s really exciting to hear more evidence that eating together, along with decreasing risky behaviors and improving on mental health issues, such as depression, can also benefit overall health,” said Dr. Mara Minguez of NewYork-Presbyterian in New York City, who wasn’t involved in the study.

Read the full article about family meals by Linda Caroll at Reuters