Kids who eat with their families are less likely to eat unhealthy foods and become overweight, U.S. researchers have found out.

According to Reuters, the study showed that kids who eat with their parents at least three times a week had 12 percent lower odds of being overweight.

The children were also 20 percent less likely to eat junk food, 35 percent less likely to have eating problems like skipping meals or bingeing, and 24 percent more likely to eat vegetables and other healthy foods.

“Sitting down together as a family, there are nutritional benefits from that,” said Amber Hammons, a psychologist at the University of Illinois at Urbana, Champaign, whose findings are published in the journal Pediatrics.

“It’s just an association,” she added. “Families who sit down together could be healthier to begin with.”

Cchildhood obesity has more than tripled over the past 3 decades, reaching close to 20 percent in 2008, based on statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Being overweight may cause social and health problems for kids.

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