It seems like study after study reports parents making poor food and beverage choices and practicing fewer healthy eating behaviors like cooking at home and serving children breakfast. Results from a new survey, however, show that family nutrition and physical activity habits are improving.

The American Dietetic Association Foundation's 2010 Family Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey was administered nationwide to 1,193 pairs of children (ages 8 to 17) and their parents, examining eating habits and physical activity. The survey was previously conducted in 2003. Positive changes in family behaviors included:

• Since 2003, there has been a significant increase in daily family meals eaten at home, from 52 percent in 2003 to 73 percent in 2010. Additionally, 72.9 percent of children are eating at home on all five school nights, compared to 51.9 percent in 2003.
• A majority of families are not eating at fast food or sit-down restaurants often, with 51.4 percent of Caucasian, 56.5 percent of African-American and 63.8 percent of Hispanic kids reporting that their families eat there less than once a week or never. In comparison, children eating at fast food or sit-down restaurants three times a week or more include 9.3 percent of Caucasian children, 17.9 percent of African-American children and 13.2 percent of Hispanic children.
• The survey revealed a 93 percent increase since 2003 in the number of children being physically active with their parents three or more days a week. While a significant improvement, the rate of activity is still much lower than national recommendations of physical activity.

However, there are still a few areas for improvement:

• Families are more aware of what they should not eat than what they should eat. Less than 25 percent of parents and their children correctly identified grains as the food group from which the most servings should be consumed daily. The most common answer was vegetables except for Hispanic children who selected meats, fish, poultry and beans. When asked from which food group a person should eat the fewest servings daily, 78.4 percent of Caucasian, 66.2 percent of African-American and 70.5 percent of Hispanic parents and 74.2 percent of Caucasian, 63.2 percent of African-American and 66.4 percent of Hispanic children correctly identified the fats, oils and sweets group.
• Children eat while doing other activities including homework, watching television, playing computer games and talking on the phone. About one-fourth of children eat while watching TV and a similar number said they eat after dinner all or most of the time.
• Similar to 2003, most family activities are sedentary — watching TV or movies or playing video games. Engaging in these activities three or more days weekly is 64.4 percent of families in 2010 and 57.2 percent of families in 2003.

The benefits of family meals and activities range from better eating habits and less overweight/obesity to better grades in school and lower rates of adolescent smoking, drinking, drugs, and eating disorders. Many families argue, however, that lack of time gets in the way. What do you think? Should spending an hour around the table talking with mom and dad be made a higher priority than extracurricular activities? How can busy families make this happen? Respond to this post on our Facebook page.

The American Dietetic Association Foundation's Family Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey was fielded in February of 2010 by the independent custom survey research company Knowledge Networks. Survey results were released by the ADA Foundation in November of 2010, more information can be found at www.eatright.org. Outreach and promotion of the survey results is supported by an educational grant from the General Mills Foundation.