** This thread discusses the content article: TV Doesn't Make Kids Fat! **

For years everyone said that tv was linked to childhood obesity.  Made sense.  After all, if a kid was watching tv, then he or she wasn't playing outside and burning all those extra calories, right?

But wait a minute.  If a child is sitting in math class or reading a book, they're not outside playing and burning off all those extra calories either.  So why aren't those activities linked to childhood obesity?

One study aimed to find out.  They didn't just look at how much tv a kid watched and how much the kid weighed.  They looked at what the kid watched.  They found that kids who watched no commercials (DVDs for example) or few/healthy commercials (PBS) didn't usually have weight problems.  The kids who watched traditional kids shows with lots of sugary junk food commercials, on the other hand, were the ones who were likely to be overweight.  And that was even after the researchers had controlled for activity level, age, gender, parent's education, and parent's weight.

So, parents, you don't have to fear the tv.  You have to fear the commercials.  Switch to educational and age appropriate DVDs, PBS shows, or On Demand shows instead.


www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100209095753.htm

I think you're exactly right, however, a sedentary lifestyle most certainly has something to do with overweight kids. The fact that there are a lot more forms of entertainment that don't require much movement. I guess you could say the Nintendo Wii is trying to counter this.

But overconsumption (stimulated by commercials and commercial-sim and the desire to live a bourgeois lifestyle) is probably three fourths of the problem. I think the working class is especially guilty of this, sometimes through their own fault and sometimes through things they can't control. Let me explain: Americans, and especially working class Americans are trained to buy as much as possible in order to set up the facade of prosperity, however, their buying of junk products and junk food is more a bane than a blessing. The processing that goes into cheap food sold to people is part of what promotes obesity. Lack of quality (in favor of more quantity) is covered up with lots of useless salt, sugar, and preservatives. Good luck trying to find drink products or food products without sucralose or high fructose corn syrup.

I think it's also worth mentioning that just because a child sees junk food on tv doesn't mean the parents have to buy the junk food for the child.

So I think it's beneficial to cut out or cut down on commercials for young children for a variety of reasons. After all, you don't want your child constantly asking for garbage. And you don't want your child going on a junk food binge as soon as they're old enough to get to the store on their own.

But when the child is small, it's the parents' job to be educated, to make healthy choices, and to have the final say.