Kids who watch too much TV ‘grow into junk food adults’

Children who watch too much television are significantly more likely to have bad eating habits in later life, an American study has shown.

Research published in BioMed Central’s open access International Journal of Behavioural Nutrition and Physical Activity is the first to find a strong association between TV and diet during the transition from adolescence to adulthood.

Dr Daheia Barr-Anderson from the University of Minnesota analysed the TV-watching and dietary habits of 2,000 students.

“We’ve shown that TV viewing during adolescence predicts poorer dietary intake patterns five years later,” she writes.

The research team found that those high school students who watched more than five hours of television per day had a lower intake of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and calcium-rich foods, along with a higher intakes of snack foods, fried foods, fast food, sugar-sweetened beverages and trans fats five years later.

According to Dr Barr-Anderson, “these less than healthy foodstuffs are commonly advertised on television, while healthy foods rarely receive the same publicity”.