Children 'gain weight as they watch TV'

[JWL]

Children 'gain weight as they watch TV'

David Fickling
Tuesday April 25, 2006

Children consume nearly as many calories as are in a packet of crisps with every hour they spend watching television, according to US research.

Watching TV also encourages children to eat more junk foods, particularly soft drinks and takeaway fast food, the researchers found.

The study is the first to demonstrate that watching television directly influences intake of calories. Its main author, Jean Wiecha, said the survey showed that excessive TV viewing was in itself a health risk.

"The food industry spends billions of dollars on advertising because they know it is effective," she told Guardian Unlimited.

"They talk about fighting for your child's dollars, and the result is additional food going in your child's mouth. The intensity of the viewing looks like it's really driving up intake of the foods being advertised."

The study followed 550 children aged 11 to 13 over a period of 20 months. For each hour they spent watching television, their food intake was found at the end of the period to have increased by 167 calories a day. (A packet of crisps contains around 180 calories, while a can of Coke has 140).

Figures from the communications regulator, Ofcom, show that British children watch 10,000 TV commercials every year, including nearly 3,000 ads for soft drinks, foods and fast food chains.

Ofcom found that British advertisers spend £522m a year on commercials targeted specifically at children, who watch commercial TV for 588 hours each year - the equivalent of 24 days.

Numerous scientific studies have shown that children who watch more TV have a higher calorie intake, but advertisers argue that this is a result of their more sofa-bound lifestyle rather than of the adverts they are watching.

Dr Wiecha, however, said her work contradicted this. "Although children and youth are encouraged to watch what they eat, many youth seem to eat what they watch," the report's authors wrote.

"We've shown that as kids watch more television, they eat fewer fruits and vegetables. Television viewing influences children's diets."

The Guardian reported last week that government manifesto plans to restrict children's food advertising had been watered down after sustained lobbying of Ofcom by advertisers and broadcasters.

TV commercials aimed at children younger than 12 have been banned in Sweden and Quebec, and similar restrictions apply in Belgium, Denmark and Greece.

But a range of proposals Ofcom published last month failed to recommend any restrictions on food advertising to children older than nine, and campaigners said the restrictions for younger children were minimal.

Dr Wiecha's report was published in this month's issue of the medical journal the Archives of Paediatric and Adolescent Medicine.

A study in the same issue found that children exposed to more than two hours of television per day were more likely to be overweight than those who were not.

[Hunter Gatherer]

Why does this not surprise me?

I no longer watch television, and for a while my tv was relegated to the closet. I recently had to move it out to make room for a washer and a dryer I acquired, but I still never watch it (as tv that is).

"Why do you keep it around if you never watch it?" you ask. I do occasionally watch videos. They have no advertisements, and they are for a specific time increment, no time wasted just zoning out or channel surfing.

The money you can save on cable bills alone (HOW much money for HOW few channels you actually watch?) is insane. And the time you save is priceless. (Well okay, you can argue that any time is worth minimum wage or whatever, but you know what I mean.)

[reinhard]

Sad, but not too surprising. You sit without moving watching picures of food. Of course you're going to eat more, especially if you're just an impulsive kid. Advertisers aren't dumb. They wouldnt throw billions of dollars at this if it didn't work. Good thing tele-oflaction hasn't hit the market yet -- imagine how much you'd eat if you could *smell* sizzling fatburgers.

Hopefully some sensible laws will get passed one day, but in the meantime, it's something to think about before purchasing that new wide-ass plasma tv.

Thanks for posting this, James.

Reinhard

[JWL]

Yeah, I haven't had a TV in the house since 1997. My beautiful wife hasn't had one in nearly 20 years. I do watch DVDs on the computer, though.

Although last year we did our offseason rental in OOB, and the place came with a TV with all the cable channels. Amazing how easy it is, even for someone with a pretty good resistance to it, to get sucked into that corporate one-way information flow.

There's a reason they call it "television programming."

It's amazing how much more I get done without the distractions of television.

[navin]

I don't watch much TV either... but when I do, here's one more situation where water can be helpful. I drink water while watching, and then by the time the commercials come around, I have to leave to go to the bathroom anyway.

[flsunshine]

I haven't had a TV since I moved out of the parent's house (let's see, that would be over 20 years) and we still don't have a TV with two young boys.

They've never missed it and never ask about it. I was asking my 4th grader just the other night (for the first time - truly, the subject just does not come up) how he felt about it and he said he was happy not to have one. He liked not having to talk to kids at school about all the silly shows they watch. They do watch occasional shows at Grandma's and we play movies on the computer sometimes - we're not manic about it.

No gameboys, either. There's just too much of a temptation to "tune in and tune out" with kids (and adults!). Besides how in the world do you fit in a couple of hours of TV every day??