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In a fast-paced environment, parents and teenagers may not always get the chance to all sit down together and enjoy dinner and a good meal. Fast food and tv dinners are just some of the normal examples of what this traditional family meal has been exchanged for in a number of present-day homes. Food and lifestyle expert, author, and TV personality Lauren Groveman puts emphasis on how a traditional home cooked family dinner can help a busy parent strengthen his bond with his teen. Much communication with your teenagers can occur in simple family moments like this, and the Home Cooking Strategy may just be what you need to reach your troubled teen.
 Groveman explains “A study was conducted by The National Center on Addition and Substance Abuse at Columbia University and it was discovered that children who ate dinner with their families were less likely to smoke, drink or use drugs. The study compared teens who had five or more family dinners per week with teens who had two or less dinners with their family per week. The teenagers who ate less dinners with their families were three times more likely to try marijuana; two-and-a-half times likelier to smoke cigarettes; and more than one-and-a-half times more likely to drink alcohol. The study also showed that teens who had five or more dinners a week with their parents experienced lower levels of stress and felt as though they could go to one or both of their parents to talk over serious problems. Their conclusion was that, in order to raise healthy kids, we’ve got to get the family back to the dinner table.”
If you are excited to try the Home Cooking Strategy with your teenager but you’re not sure how to get him away from the TV screen and next to you at the dinner table, Groveman gives non-vocational cooking and baking classes in a home-based cooking school she developed herself and in a number of culinary facilities around the country.
“If you want to uplift the emotional, physical and spiritual well-being of your teenagers, provide them with a lovingly-prepared home cooked meal. Fill your living environment with rich aromas, soothing tastes, comforting sounds, and that warm feeling of togetherness, and your home will be a place where your teenagers will feel nurtured and fortified,” ends Groveman.
Check out www.laurengroveman.com for a great family recipe that you and your teen can begin to bond over.
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