How turning off TV helps children to lose weight

Published on Monday 3 March 2008 21:12

Study finds restricting hours in front of the TV or computer screen makes for healthier, slimmer youngsters

EVERY parent wishes their child would spend less time watching television and more time doing their homework.

But now research shows restricting hours in front of the box also reduces the amount youngsters eat and helps them lose weight.

The study suggests parents should be capping the amount of TV their children watch as the habit encourages them to eat too much bad food.

The researchers took a group of 70 overweight children aged four to seven, all of whom watched at least 14 hours of TV a week.

The families had devices fitted to their TVs and computers to monitor use, with each member having a code to activate the set and record viewing-time.

Half of the children were set a weekly time limit for how long they could watch TV before it switched off. The other children had no limits.

The group with a limit had the time cut by 10 per cent a month until the hours watched were half what they started with.

Extra incentives, such as money, were given to children who watched less TV than the hours they were alloted.

The researchers, from the University of Buffalo in New York, said: "Television viewing is related to consumption of fast food, and foods and beverages that are advertising on television." They added: "Television viewing or related sedentary behaviour may prompt eating by the association of these behaviours with eating."

The study, published in the journal Archives of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, found that children with restricted viewing hours ate less – their consumption dropped by more than 300 calories a day after two years compared to a fall of about 200 in the control group.

The drop in body mass index – a measure of weight in relation to height – was also almost double in the restricted group.

However, children with no time limits saw their TV and computer use fall by 5.2 hours a week in two years, compared to 17.5 in the restricted group.

The researchers said technology could help parents enforce rules on TV viewing and reduce sedentary behaviour.

Tam Fry, chairman of the Child Growth Foundation, said they advocated the use of devices to limit TV viewing in children. "There's a role for these gadgets in helping make children more active and discouraging poor diets linked to TV watching."

GROWING PROBLEM

TELEVISION has been blamed for some time as a major culprit in Scotland's increasing epidemic of obesity.

The recent Growing Up in Scotland study revealed that 63 per cent of children aged just 22 months watched television every day. The study also revealed that 23 per cent of youngsters under the age of four are already overweight.

And just last year a major international study placed Scotland second only to the United States in its levels of obesity.