You are what you watch.
UCLA School of Public Health released a study this month providing additional details to the link between television viewing and childhood obesity. It demonstrates that the link is not all about the amount of TV watched, but rather, the number of junkfood commercials witnessed by the viewer over time.
Who? Researchers Frederick J. Zimmerman and Janice F Bell of UCLA School of Public Health
Participants: Primary Caregivers of over 3500 children between the ages of 0 and 12 years.
What did they do? Kept a journal of their children’s activities, including TV viewing, throughout the week as well as the format of that media delivery– regular TV programs, DVDs/Videos, educational or entertainment. The study started in 1997 and a follow up was conducted in 2002. The analysis controlled for physical activity, gender, age, race/ethnicity, mother’s BMI, education and sleep time to assure that the results were due to the TV watching rather than these other factors.
What interesting things did they find?
- Commercial viewing was significantly associated with higher BMI. The effect was stronger for children younger than 7 than those who were older than 7 years of age.
- Non-commercial watching, such as watching DVDs or watching educational programming was not associated with childhood obesity.
- The association between TV viewing an childhood obesity is directly related to our children’s exposure to food-related commercials that advertise unhealthy options for children.
So what?
The big “so whats” are these:
- By the time a kid is 5 years old, they’ve seen more than 4,000 TV commercials annually that advertise food.
- On Saturday mornings, during your kid’s cartoon watching, they see an average of 1 food commercial EVERY 5 MINUTES.
- Of those commercials, MOST– up to 95%– are for unhealthy foods that have poor nutritional value, namely, salty foods, sugary foods, fast foods, soda and other high-sugar drinks. Advertisers use a variety of tactics to entice children into desiring and consuming those foods– specifically “packaged” for boys and girls. Commercialism challenges children’s self control.
Conclusion: The researchers conclude that there really is an easy switch for the avid TV watcher. If your children are going to watch TV, have them watch high-quality educational TV without all those commercials that push unhealthy eating and unhealthy foods. You will likely be saving them from a host of health problems.
One thing Dr. Robyn wished they revealed: The link between these unhealthy toxic commercials and the actual health of the children rather than simply the weight correlation. I would wonder how the effects are playing out in blood sugar levels, blood pressure, etc. My guess is that the issue is far worse than it sounds here– obesity is only one possible link– what about the naturally thin kids who are watching all those toxic commercials? Surely they are suffering in health as well. We must send the message that these commercials aren’t good for anyone and can poison our children’s overall health, not just their weight.
