TV Watching and Childhood Obesity

11/08/2017

TV Watching and Childhood Obesity

Here's to the bridge-builders, the hand-holders, the light-bringers, those extraordinary souls wrapped in ordinary lives who quietly weave threads of humanity into an inhumane world.
L.R. Knost, American author and child-development researcher

"The ill effects of being a couch potato kick in fast for kindergartners, a new study suggests." So writes Karen Kaplan in a recent Los Angeles Times article.

"Kindergarten children who watched television for more than one hour a day were 52% more likely to be overweight than their schoolmates who watched less TV, researchers said Sunday. The kids who spent at least an hour each day in front of the boob tube were also 72% more likely to be obese. These figures are based on data from 12,650 children from around the country who started kindergarten in the fall of 2011 and were enrolled in a study run by the U.S. Department of Education...

"One year after they entered the study, 10,853 of the children had their height and weight measured again...The results were once again striking: Compared to the kids who watched less than an hour of TV per day, those who watched an hour or more were 39% more likely to become overweight between kindergarten and first grade. They also were 86% more likely to become obese during that time.

"The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children limit their total screen time — including time in front of the TV — to less than two hours per day. But these results suggest their advice may be overly generous."

Source: "Study makes surprising link between TV time and childhood obesity," by Karen Kaplan, Los Angeles Times, April 26, 2015

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