How to get the whole family to enjoy a healthy dinner

Dinner time is crucial for children to form health eating habits, and allows the whole family to spend quality time together. Here are some tips to help you make the most of family dinners.

If your children won't eat what you put on their plate, bite your tongue.

• Hassling children over their eating habits during dinner actually causes children – and their parents – to eat less well, according to one study.
• Both the children and their parents consumed more fat during meals when they argued over eating behaviour.
• The stress from the argument may have led to cravings for fatty comfort foods rather than an appetite for Brussels sprouts and spinach.

Instead of forcing kids to clean their plates, enforce a one-bite rule.

• Encourage your children to take one bite out of all the foods on their plate.
• If, after one bite, they still don't want to eat their spinach or broccoli, let them push it aside.
• This technique encourages children to try new foods, but doesn't create a stressful eating experience.
• Also, involve young children in preparing foods you want them to try. A sense of ownership makes them bolder.

Children who eat dinner at the table with other family members are more likely to enjoy a healthy diet.

• Shared family time, including mealtimes, may also hold the key to building successful relationships.
• Families that eat together are also likely to consume more fruit and vegetables and drink fewer soft drinks.
• Hold a family meeting and pick nights and times that work for everyone. Make eating together at the table non-negotiable.

If you have children aged ten-plus or another adult who gets home before you do, get them started on dinner.

• For example, you might ask your partner to pick up ingredients on the way home, your teen to start chopping vegetables for the salad and fill the pasta pot with water, and your pre-teen to gather necessary ingredients for a given recipe and put them on the counter for you, preheat the oven and set the table.
• Yes, they may think of it as a chore, but if you build in a little opportunity for them to "create" (for example, with place cards for dinner, fancy napkin folding, their own recipes) it will make your children more interested in nutritious food and will encourage them to try new things.