Take The Family Dinner Challenge This Week!

You could win a prize for your family just by eating dinner together!

Barnabas Health Institute for Prevention is urging families to take the time to have at least three dinners together a week.

Compared to teens who have frequent family dinners (5 - 7 per week), those who have infrequent family dinners (fewer than 3 per week) are

-- almost four times likelier to use tobacco and say they expect to try drugs in the future

--more than twice as likely to use alcohol

-- two-and-a-half times likelier to use marijuana.

When younger children frequently eat dinner with their families, they are less likely to be overweight than other children.

When families dine together, they tend to eat more vegetables and fruits and fewer fried foods, soda, and foods with trans fats.

Nearly three quarters of teens think that eating dinner frequently with their parents is very or fairly important.

Let Barnabus Health Institute know how you're doing on their Facebook page: www.facebook.com/barnabashealthifp and share healthy and easy recipes, offer tips and strategies to other families, and just let them know you've met the goal of having three family dinners this week.

At the end of this week (National Prevention Week, May 12 - 18, 2013), each person who has posted about the Family Dinner Challenge on the Barnabas Health Institute Facebook page will be entered into a random drawing to win four movie tickets!

(Only one entry per person, regardless of the number of Facebook posts during the week. Must be a Facebook 'friend' of Barnabas Health Institute for Prevention to be eligible for the raffle.)