For families, eating together provides time for bonding and conversation after a long day. New research shows it also has physical and mental health benefits for children.

Researchers at the University of Montreal looked at children who had been tracked since they were 5 months old as part of a developmental study. Their parents started reporting family meal habits when the children were 6 years old. Four years later, the parents gave information about their children’s psychosocial well-being and lifestyle.

The researchers wanted to know whether sharing meals in early childhood had an influence on their well-being later in life. They found that children from families with better mealtime environments at age 6 were more likely to be fit at age 10 compared with kids who had less positive mealtimes. A more positive mealtime was also associated with lower levels of soft-drink consumption, better social skills and less aggressive and negative behavior.

Having plenty of information about the children before age 6 allowed the researchers to eliminate conditions such as temperament and cognitive abilities that could have skewed the findings.

So, what makes for a good family meal? Having parents present at meals gives children a chance for social interaction, to talk about their daily concerns, and an opportunity to chat in an emotionally secure setting. All of that, researchers said, means family meals can have a long-term influence on children’s mental and physical well-being.

For busy parents, quality time at the dinner table can be elusive. But, as the research showed, it can be a time for more than physical nourishment.