Challenging assumptions of family meals and the eating behavior and weight trajectories of youth: A genetic perspective

The family meal is an institution. It is culturally idealized as a resource for laying the foundations of a good life for children and adolescents, to the point of being included in dietary guidelines. Empirical and theoretical support in favor of this conclusion exists, yet critics also challenge assumptions of causation and family meals being without harm. Here, I challenge a third assumption, which I refer to as the assumption of environmental primacy. Focusing on eating behavior and body weight of children and adolescents, I discuss evidence from methods in behavioral and social science genetics (twin and adoption studies, molecular genetics, and within-family designs) and argue that if no attempt is made to consider the relative importance of genetic and environmental factors, we cannot claim with any confidence that family meals matter. At least not for the eating behaviors and weight trajectories of youth. Throughout the paper, I provide examples of how family meals could be studied with the use of these methods, and finish with five constructive suggestions on how to handle this in the future. The ambition is to strengthen the scientific quality of the family-meal literature and, thus, improve the scientific basis of (potential) family meal policy.