Research at the
National Institute on Media and the Family reveals that
66 percent of American families have the television on during
mealtime at least "sometimes." Forty percent watch TV "almost
always" while eating. In the past I have recommended shutting
off the tube during meals because it interferes with one
of the few times left for family communication. Recent research
is giving us another reason for not mixing eating with viewing:
overweight youngsters and families eating badly.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has been sounding the
alarm about the rapid increase in obesity among children
and adolescents. The rate has doubled in the past 20 years
and tripled since the 1960s. This should get our attention
since 80 percent of overweight kids become overweight adults,
greatly increasing their risk for diabetes, heart disease,
high blood pressure and other ailments.
So what's going on? What's responsible for the ballooning
of our kids? Researchers at different institutions are independently
pointing their fingers at the same culprit: television.
A study done at Tufts University shows that the children
in families watching TV during meals eat fewer fruits and
vegetables and consume more snack food. Another team of
scientists at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston discovered
that overweight youngsters eat half of all their meals in
front of the tube.
The reasons are pretty clear. Kids who watch TV during
meals tend to watch more TV overall. We already know from
other research that there is a direct connection between
TV hours and youth obesity. Young couch potatoes don't get
the exercise they need to burn off those calories. Then
to make matters worse they are lured into eating high fat
snacks and tooth rotting beverages by the non-stop parade
of junk food commercials. It also appears that families
with TV on during meals tend to be less focused and more
convenience oriented. Popping a pizza in the oven is a lot
easier that planning and preparing a well-balanced meal.
The good news is that simply changing the TV diet immediately
reduces the waistline. Stanford University scientists wanted
to find out what would happen to kids' weight if the only
thing they changed was the number of hours they spent watching
TV - no exercise plan or diet. By changing only the amount
of screen time, researchers got them to cut TV time by a
little more than an hour a day. Presto. The pounds started
to melt off.
When parents ask me what they can do to tame the tube,
one of the first things I suggest is to turn off the TV
during meals. That change can increase family communication.
But there is another reason. TV free meals help prevent
couch potatoes from becoming couch melons.
David Walsh, Ph.D. is the founder and president
of the National Institute on Media and the Family. He is
the author of Dr. Dave's Cyberhood (Simon & Schuster, 2001)
and the star of the PBS special Raising MediaWise Kids.
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