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Meals at the family dinner table could be the key to preventing a generation of teenage girls from
developing eating disorders (紊乱).
New research shows girls who regularly have family meals are much less likely to adopt extreme
weight-control behaviors such as vomiting, and using diet pills.
The research, published in the international journal Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent
Medicine, surveyed students aged 13 to 17 in 2003 and followed them up five years later. Regular
family meals were found to have a protective effect regardless of the age, weight, socioeconomic status,
dieting habit or relationship with the family.
Belinda Dalton, director of the eating disorder clinic The Oak House, said eating with family helped
"normalize" young people's relationship with food.
"When teens are feeling that they are not managing, they turn to something that they can control and
food is something available and accessible for them to control. Clearly, if they are sitting with their family
on a regular basis, then their family can be more in control of their eating," Ms Dalton said.
"It's about young people feeling connected within their family, and that builds self-esteem and a sense
of worth and works very actively against someone developing an eating disorder.
An eating disorder expert, Kirsty Greenwood, said meal times were often difficult for sufferers. "It's
typical that they feel very ashamed of their eating habits and often won't eat with other people. Perhaps
it's because they haven't experienced the important of the family meal while growing up," she said.
The study found eating regular family meals made no difference to the future eating habits of boys.
1. The author writes this passage with the purpose of _______.
A. stressing the necessity of family meals for the teenage girls
B. showing the results of a research
C. providing some suggestions on family dinner
D. presenting the difference in eating habits between boys and girls
2. Which of following is NOT a benefit of regular family meals?
A. They decrease the trend towards extreme weight control behaviors
B. They can help girls to have a better relationship with food
C. They can help girls to work against the development of an eating disorder.
D. They provide girls with the chance of getting control of food.
3. What does the underlined "that" in Paragraph 6 refer to?
A. Young people
B. Having a good relationship with the family
C. Feeling connected with the family
D. Self-esteem and a sense of worth
4. We can infer from the text that ______.
A. Ms Dalton advises parents to get children under full control
B. Kirsty Greenwood suggests that the time for meals be fixed
C. the effect of regular family meals on boys differs from that on girls
D. experience is more important than indirect knowledge