Pediatrics magazine published a study called 'Characteristics of Screen Media Use Associated With Higher BMI in Young Adolescents' a few months ago. It was intended to study the relationship between television use and an increase in body mass in adolescents.
The main responsible for the research conducted by Boston Children's Hospital, is Dr. David Bickhan, who points out that the key is in the attention that boys and girls pay to the screen. The large number of food ads with excess fats and sugar, could be influencing the eating habits of the youngest. But TV also encourages an unhealthy habit that we talked about in the past in this post about the regulation of meals in children. Is about 'eat without paying attention' when family, food and television coexist (an inappropriate habit) at mealtime. Many times it prevents paying attention to what we put in our mouths, and could even influence that we do not realize the signals that the body sends to indicate that 'enough is enough'.
But on television and its advertisements, control can be exercised, and it should be studied how public health advertisements could counteract the influence of exposure to the supposed 'benefits' of hypercaloric food. I do not know if there are regulation codes in the United States and to what extent companies comply with them, although I am sure that it would also help a greater commitment from the industry.
The participants in the study have not observed the relationship between screen exposure and overweight or obesity, when talking about computers or consoles. Although other experts prefer to be more cautious, it is the case of dr. David Katz, director of the Center for Prevention Research at Yale University, who is not very confident, and is in favor of being more cautious when making such statements.
Dimitri Christakis is a professor of Pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine, and points out that they usually talk about monitoring children's exposure times to television, but it is not so frequent to pay attention to the contents. It states that in this subject that we are sedentary is not the cause, because when we read we are also still, and it would occur to no one to say that reading leads to being obese. It obviously refers to sedentary lifestyle while in front of the screen, because in general it is advisable to perform weekly physical activities.
I have to point out that this research has been carried out with a very small group (91) of adolescents between 13 and 15 years old, who made annotations at the request of the responsible team. The main conclusion was that the amount of attention paid to television is related to weight.
I think that more important than knowing the results of the research, is to reflect on the influence of television on the development of children, and realize that time management is as important as the minimization of the impact of contents related to unhealthy foods. Or, at the very least, be present when children (even young children) watch television, to be able to monitor what they see, and help in the acquisition of critical spirit.
And let us always keep in mind the power of our example that acts as a model (in terms of healthy eating), models and guides that are moved by the love of children, and that also includes efforts to have good health in the future.
