• Television and Obesity 
• Articles on Obesity
• Obesity

Children and teens spend more time like 50 hours per week in front of computer, television, and game screens than any other physical activity in their lives except sleeping said Kaiser Family Foundation in 2005.

Around 30 % of children between ages 6 to 11 are overweight and 15% are obese. For teens between ages 12 to 19, the rate is almost the same. 33.4% overweight and 15.5% obese said American Obesity Association in 2006. Further the incidence of Type II diabetes in children, the diabetes linked with obesity has increased significantly in the past few decades.

Sitting in front of television influences two things in kids and teens

1. It is the main cause of them becoming obese.

2. And television advertising powerfully makes an impact on what children under 12 eat. Invariably the advertisements endorse for junk food.

Did you know?

• Over weight problem in children relates to the hours they watch television. More the hours they watch, more likely they are obese. These results were reported in a study by researchers at the University at Buffalo , Johns Hopkins University , The National Cancer Institute, and the Centers for Disease Control (Crespo, 2001).

• A more recent study found that children who watch more than three hours of television a day are 50 per cent more likely to be obese than kids who watch fewer than two hours. These researchers conclude that "more than 60% of overweight incidents can be linked to excess TV viewing" (Tremblay, 2003).

• Obesity puts children at risk for a variety of health problems. Type II diabetes, or adult onset, is closely connected to weight. One study found that rates of this disease in children, quadrupled, rising from 4% in 1982, to 16% by 1994 (Squires, 1998).

• According to the Centers for Disease Control, 60% of overweight children between the ages of 5 and 10 years of age already have at least one risk factor for heart disease, including elevated blood cholesterol, blood pressure or increased insulin levels. These are the factors that lead to hypertension, diabetes, and atherosclerosis (Centers for Disease Control, 2000).

• Lack of physical activity is a large contributor to this problem. Physical education, once an important part of every child's school day, has been cut back at many schools. Less than half of U.S. schoolchildren have access to daily physical education classes (Squires, 1998).

• Children who use a lot of media have a lower activity level which links to a higher rate of obesity (Vandewater, 2004).

Among kids and teens from ages 6 through 18, obesity rates have tripled over the past 50 years. Obesity doubles the rate of type 2 diabetes and many other diseases related to heart and health conditions of legs and bones.

Lack of physical activity is a major problem here on childhood obesity. And, in fact, the industry is heavily involved in special programs to educate parents and children about the need for good nutrition and physical activity.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 13.9 percent of children aged 2 to 5 are overweight, 18.8 percent of those aged 6 to 11 are and more than 17 percent of those 12 to 19. The percentages have been steadily rising.

Television watching likely to increase obesity rates, both because children exercise less and because it can interfere with sleep.

The Institute of Medicine time and again reports that there is compelling evidence linking food advertising on television and increased childhood obesity. One study suggested that children viewed an average of about 20,000 commercials aired on television per year in the late 1970s, rising to 30,000 per year in the late 1980s and more than 40,000 per year in the late 1990s and more than 60,000 per year now. Banning fast-food advertising on television in the world could reduce the number of overweight children by as much as 20 percent, researchers said

In a report, the Institute of Medicine in USA said television advertising powerfully makes an impact on what children under 12 eat. The report suggests the food industry should spend its marketing dollars on nutritious food and drinks. That means world’s animated star characters on TV network, and other characters should endorse only good-good diet food, the study concluded.

Many social organizations should campaign aimed at winning over kids to eat healthy foods and to get up off the couch in front of the TV sets and move.

In adults, a person who is obese has a Body Mass Index, or BMI, of 30 or more. Children are obese according to a formula placing their BMI at or above the 95th percentile on government charts specifying age and gender. BMI shows body weight adjusted for height.