Have you ever sat in front of the TV and not paid attention to what was happening on the screen? That’s apparently healthier for you than the alternative: caring.
“There is something unique about television and something unique about being engaged with television,” said lead researcher David Bickham, a research scientist at the Center on Media and Child Health at Children’s Hospital Boston, according to a US News article.
“The amount of attention that young people pay to television is a key link between media use and issues with weight,” continued Bickham, who also is an instructor in pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.
“All screen time is not the same,” said Dr. Michael Rich of Children’s Hospital’s Center for Media and Child Health, according to a report by the Boston Herald. “With video games and the computer, your hands are busy, there’s less advertising.... TV sets up an environment where food consumption is easy. Television is financially supported by advertising, and that advertising is almost never for broccoli.”
This is why snack food companies do so well, because those types of food go so well with watching TV for hours. They go even better with shows that you are actively excited to watch.
Think about it. People have entire watch parties for TV shows, complete with a whole spread of themed foods and snacks.
Even simpler than that, though, is just sitting down with a meal to watch TV. It’s connected in our brains to be fed while we’re entertained. (Looking at you, sports stadiums.)
So even when we don’t have an actual meal to eat at a normal meal hour, it’s still natural for us to grab something to just munch on in order to pass the time.
“If you’re engaged with the TV, you’re not paying attention to the food you’re eating, or the cues that your body is giving,” said Bickham, according to the report from the Boston Herald.
This is a problem that’s both on us, as humans and as consumers, and the advertisers who constantly shove unhealthy foods in front of our faces.
We do think there has been certain strides made lately in advertising products that are better for your health, but most of us probably ignore them.
Doesn’t “healthy” give you a mental image of “it tastes bad, so I hate it?” That’s because advertising companies know it’s way easier to sell us the good-tasting, terrible-for-you products. We’re dumb and impressionable, and we like to eat any kind of snack possible.
Who knew caring about a TV show, however, was also going to be a part of our downfall?
“This study ... suggests that TV is the particular culprit. Further, just having a TV on in the background isn’t the problem — the problem is actually watching the TV,” said Dr. David Katz, director of the Yale University Prevention Research Center, according to the article by US News.
The study these scientists are referring to was taken from data of 13- to 15-year-olds, so the damage has already been done to our hopeless bodies.
