Originally published September 26 2005
Watching too much TV may make children overweight
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
A study by New Zealand researchers that tracked children's TV-watching habits from the ages of three to 15 showed those who had watched more hours of television were more likely to be overweight, and the findings were especially true for girls.
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New Zealand researchers followed nearly 1,000 children, starting when the kids were 3 years old and ending at age 15.
The kids who watched the most TV were most likely to be overweight.
That was especially true of girls, the study shows.
"Television viewing should be regarded as an important contributing factor to childhood obesity," write the researchers in the International Journal of Obesity.
The researchers included Robert Hancox, MD, MRCP, FRACP.
He is the deputy director of the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health & Development Research Unit at New Zealand's University of Otago.
That's based on parents' reports when the kids were little and kids' own reports as teens.
Since then, kids' opportunities for "screen time" has soared with more channels, nonstop TV, computers, and DVDs, write Hancox and colleagues.
They used BMI (body mass index) -- an indicator of body fat -- to identify obese and overweight kids.
The researchers don't totally blame TV for kids' extra pounds.
"This huge increase at the population level must be largely driven by changes in children's diet or levels of activity.
Time spent watching television may be related to both," they write.
The link between TV and childhood weight problems was "small," the researchers say.
Ideally, the researchers would have compared kids who watch tons of TV with those who never watch TV.
But there was a hitch with that.
Had there been a group of kids that never watched TV, the link between TV viewing habits and kids' BMI might have been stronger, write the researchers.
"Even those who watched very little may have been indirectly influenced by television through its effects on their peer group," write Hancox and colleagues.
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