Television viewing and food intake during television viewing in normal-weight, overweight and obese 9- to 11-year-old Canadian children: a cross-sectional analysis

We examined data from a cross-sectional sample of 550 ten-year-old Canadian children from the ISCOLE study. Consistent with much of the published literature, we showed that children with overweight or obesity watched more TV per day than those with normal weight. In fact, children who watched more than 4 hours of TV per day (as compared to the recommended amount of less than 2 hours per day), had greater odds of having obesity. However, this effect was no longer observed once we adjusted for the amount of objectively-measured, high-intensity physical activity that children attained. Further, children with obesity consumed fast food and fruits and vegetables more frequently while watching TV, as compared to children with overweight or normal weight. More frequent food consumption during TV viewing has the potential to negatively impact energy balance in children. Implications  This paper adds to the evidence which suggests that excess screen-based sedentary time, such as TV viewing, is one of the causes of the childhood obesity epidemic and shows that both diet and physical activity play a role in this association. In recent years, several countries have issued recommendations to limit children’s sedentary time, especially screen-based sedentary time. In the years to come it will be important to implement, and continue to support, monitoring strategies at the population-level using consistent definitions of sedentary time in order to quantify the global effect of this delet...
Source: The Nutrition Society - Category: Nutrition Authors: Source Type: news