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April 14, 2005
Prairie Fare: Dinner with TV Influences Overall Nutrition
I clearly recall pestering my mother at the grocery store to buy me TV dinners. A meal that was meant to be eaten in front of the TV was “cool” beyond words. Usually we were not allowed to watch TV while we ate dinner. I moaned about being deprived of TV during mealtime. I really, really needed a TV dinner to enjoy during my favorite show. Shiny silver trays of succulent food were beckoning me from the freezer compartment at the grocery store. Occasionally, she relented and let me pick out a dinner, but not very often. I’m not sure why I was so fascinated with food that was inferior to the delicious home-cooked meals we enjoyed every day. In fact, I was still hungry after eating the dab of mashed potatoes, mound of peas, cornbread stuffing and small slice of turkey in the “classic” TV dinner variety. I usually needed a snack later in the evening. TV dinners came on the market in the mid-‘50s, but officially became “frozen dinners” in the ‘60s. They were developed out of necessity for the Swanson Co., which had a storage dilemma following Thanksgiving one year. With too much turkey and not enough storage space, the company packed the turkey in smaller portions and transported it in refrigerated trains across the United States. The inventor of TV dinners followed the example of airline meals, using compartmentalized aluminum trays. The company had a huge hit, selling millions of dinners to families with working parents and new timesaving appliances in their kitchens. In the ‘80s, frozen dinners cooked even faster, as microwaveable dinners became common. Today frozen dinner sales top $5 billion yearly. Overall, we spend more than $25 billion on frozen foods yearly. About 40 percent of Americans always or often watch television while eating dinner, according to the National Institute of Media and the Family. Nearly all U.S. households (98 percent to be exact) have at least one television, and the TV is on at least 7 1/2 hours daily in the average home, according to research from Nielson media research. If you were deprived of television during meals as a child, count yourself lucky. Count your parents as ahead of their time, too. Researchers have shown that watching television during meals is not a good thing. In one study of 91 parent-child pairs, researchers asked the parents and children what they ate and how much TV they watched, among many questions. They sorted the parents and children into two groups according to viewing habits. Those who watched television during one or fewer meals per day were labeled the “low-TV” group. Those who watched TV during two or more meals per day formed the “high-TV” group. In this study, high TV use was linked with eating more energy from salty snacks, soda and pizza and twice the caffeine level. They also consumed fewer fruits and vegetables and less carbohydrates. Researchers continue to study the link between television viewing and eating. For now, the best advice is to turn off the TV during meals and return families to the dinner table to talk, instead of watch. Here’s a “speed-scratch” recipe for homemade cornmeal muffins.
Source:
Julie Garden-Robinson, (701) 231-7187, jgardenr@ndsuext.nodak.edu |
Market Advisor: |
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North Dakota State University |
