FAMILY DINNER GOOD FOR GRADES, STOPS DRUG ABUSE

Family dinner hour, once an institution in Canadian homes, is becoming
a quaint relic among time-starved parents and kids. This comes from a
half-dozen or so recent reports from top universities, research firms
and think-tanks, all of which paint a picture of families in crisis at
the dinner table.

Or, more accurately, away from it.

The latest studies -- one from from Harvard Medical School, the other
from Columbia University -- cite the family-dinner deficit as a
contributing factor in childhood obesity, teen substance abuse, poor
academic performance and increased household stress.

The problem has apparently grown to such proportions that a Canadian
company -- with written support from Prime Minister Paul Martin, no
less -- is organizing the country's first National Family Dinner
Night. M & M Meat Shops is asking parents to make pledges on its
website to dedicate the evening of Nov. 3 to breaking bread with loved
ones.

While the online formality might sound silly to some, experts say a
modern family needs all the help it can get when it comes to
organizing dinner.

"Kids are participating in a ton of extracurricular activities these
days," says pediatrician Elsie Taveras, lead researcher of the Harvard
study of 14,355 youth. "You can imagine how that increased demand on
our time is impacting the ability to get anyone together, let alone an
entire family."

A survey of Canadian women, released this week by Leger Marketing for
Palm Canada, found 21 per cent of married moms consider putting dinner
on the table to be the most stressful activity in their day.

But Taveras's report, published in this month's issue of the journal
Pediatrics, nonetheless calls for doctors to recommend family dinners
as an ongoing health initiative.

"We understand the stresses and demands on people's time," says
Taveras. "But our work has shown that if you eat family dinners more
often, you have better diet quality and you're less likely to be
overweight."

Lynn Fraser, founder of Families Are Worth It in Edmonton, says part
of her job as a work-life balance coach is to teach families how to
plan a meal. She covers everything from turning off the TV to changing
"dinner logistics" (for example, eating dessert first) to offering
conversation starters.

"It's really easy to put on a pot of frozen vegetables and boil them
in the water," says Fraser, who's helping promote National Family
Dinner Night. "But when you're feeling stressed, even a simple,
straightforward task like that is overwhelming."

Miriam Weinstein, author of the new book The Surprising Power of Family
Meals: How Eating Together Makes Us Smarter, Stronger, Healthier and
Happier, says people claiming to be "too busy" or "too stressed" to plan a
family dinner need to re-evaluate their lifestyle.

"Schedules are a reflection of our priorities," explains Weinstein, a
mother of two. "We brag now about how busy we are, how little time we
have for anything, and it becomes self-fulfilling."

While she admits a "seamless, 90-minute dinner" is highly unrealistic,
Weinstein believes it's within everyone's power -- and in every
family's best interest -- to attempt regular sit-down suppers.

MEALTIME MATTERS

Compared to teens who have five or more family dinners a week, a
report from Columbia University found young people who have two or
fewer family meals a week are:

3X More likely to try marijuana

2.5X More likely to smoke

1.5X More likely to drink alcohol

40% Less likely to receive A's and B's in school