Increased 'Screening' Raises Obesity Rates Among U.S. Youth
By
Meghan Vivo
December 28, 2008
Almost one-third of America's children are overweight, and experts increasingly place the blame for this epidemic on the too much "screening" - a term that refers to activities such as watching movies or television shows, surfing the Internet, playing video games, or text messaging.
According to a December 2008 study by Commonsense Media, a non-partisan watchdog group, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. children and teens now spend about 45 hours per week screening. This is triple the 15 hours a week that these young people are spending with their parents, and double the 30 hours a week they are in school.
In other words, screening is now the top priority of many young people today.
More Screen Time = More Weight
The NIH and Commonsense Media researchers examined 173 previous studies that evaluated the effect of media on children over the past 28 years. Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, the study's co-author, reported that the strongest studies link childhood obesity to the overuse of media:
- University of Missouri researchers who followed 8,000 children from kindergarten through third grade found that overweight children watch an average of two more hours of television each week than do normal-weight peers.
- Researchers with the University of California in San Diego who evaluated 546 obese children ages 4 to 17 over a two-year period discovered that those who watched more than two to four hours of television a day were 2.5 times more likely to have high blood pressure.
- A 2008 study at the Harvard Medical School found that girls who spend more than 16 hours per week on the Internet had a 60 percent chance of gaining four or more pounds a year.
Inactivity & Indoctrination
Some experts, including those at the Kaiser Foundation, believe that television increases the risk for obesity in children not only because they are sitting for long periods of time.
The other reason, according to the Kaiser report, is "children are exposed to a vast number of TV ads for food products such as sodas, cereal, candy, and fast food. ... Exposure to food commercials influences children's preferences and food requests, and that ads can also contribute to confusion among children about the relative health benefits of certain foods."
How to Help
The two hardest times to limit screening is after-school and in the summer. Enrolling overweight children in after-school programs that get them moving, such as dance, gymnastics, skating, and karate, is the best approach. If you use organized sports programs, find ones where all the children, not just the team's stars, participate. Don't choose sports in which children spend a lot of time waiting for their turns to play or practice.
Summer, in particular, presents a challenge to parents of "couch potato" and "mouse potato" children. Summer camps - especially ones that don't allow children to access TVs, computers and cell phones - can be great options. Parents may also be pleased to learn that they can enroll their children in weight loss camps designed for overweight children and teens.
A word of caution, though: Be sure that you don't sign your children up for an old-fashioned "fat camp." Instead, opt for a modern fitness weight loss camps that will help your child to maintain a healthy lifestyle that lasts long after summer ends. The philosophy of an effective summer camp should not be focused on losing weight, but rather should emphasize teaching children to make healthy food choices and to prioritize exercise.
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