A recent study, conducted by the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, surveyed a group of 2516 adolescents at two time periods in their lives: 13 and 16 years of age, on average. When asked about body mass index, eating behaviors and family relationships during the second round of surveys, girls who regularly ate meals with their families were less likely to engage in extreme measures to control weight, such as use of laxatives, diet pills and smoking. The older, family-meal-eating teens were also less likely to fast, eat food substitutes, binge eat or chronically diet.

Such evidence has led to an outpouring of consumer advice both promoting an Ozzie and Harriet-style of family togetherness and giving tips of how to achieve that in today’s fast-paced, fast-food world. However, the University of Minnesota study has a caveat -- and it’s a big one. The decrease in disordered eating was only seen in girls. Boys were not protected. In fact, more frequent family meals increased boys’ extreme weight control measures, mainly skipping meals and dieting.

So what’s really going on?

The research team, led by renowned eating disorders expert Diane Neumark-Sztainer, can’t cite the reason for the sex disparity. But the team speculates that boys might perceive the rituals around mealtimes differently, or that girls may be more sensitive to interpersonal relationships that play out over a platter of family-style pasta.

If this is so, then it’s not so important that everybody sits around the table together. Instead, it’s the dynamics that matter. There are studies to confirm this premise:

• Researchers videotaped mothers with and without eating disorders interacting with their toddlers at mealtimes and play. In both situations, mothers with eating disorders tended to “overcontrol” their children, leading to more conflict. Later studies showed that when the same toddlers reached the age of 10, they themselves showed more disturbed eating habits and attitudes.

• Women with bulimia reported experiencing more negative childhood mealtime and food-related occurrences as compared to controls. The women with bulimia said they felt high levels of stress and conflict during meals, experienced food as a tool for punishment or manipulation, and fell prey to parents who emphasized dieting and weight.

Here’s the kicker: the women with bulimia said that mealtimes tended to be the only time the family spent together.

It seems that healthy family interaction, not family meals per se, are the protecting influence on teens. I don’t doubt the studies that show regular family mealtimes can help guide our children away from risky behaviors. But simply having more meals together is not going to solve poor body image, eating disorders or the myriad of other adolescent troubles now plaguing our kids.

Beyond the food or meal participation, the attitudes and banter bandied about the dinner table also make a difference. As evidence, British researchers have found that kids who hear negative comments about weight and shape run a higher risk of developing binge eating disorders. What better fodder for a budding eating disorder than regular, nasty commentary about body size or fat content every night at 6 p.m.?

Let’s not jump the gun and reduce the prevention of eating disorders, in specific, and teen delinquency, in general, to simple nostalgic solutions. Disordered eating and eating disorders are complex problems with many causes, biological, psychological and social. Understanding the reality of these complexities is the first step in prevention. And, if you’re moving toward that goal, pay attention to the complicated ways you behave as a family.

Hannah Cohen-Cline contributed to this blog.