I'll admit it: I'm a snacker. For as long as I can remember, I'm someone who doesn't go more than a few hours without eating. I can't imagine eating breakfast at 6 a.m., and then waiting until 11 or 12 to eat again. I think my body would go into shock or blow up or something. As my daughter gets older, she's becoming just like me. "Mama, let's have a snack," she'll say, right around the time I'm thinking "Geez, I'm hungry. I wonder what I could have to eat." I try to make our snacks as healthy as possible (fruit, veggies, granola bars, yogurt, etc.) Although I don't have to worry because my daughter doesn't watch T.V. yet, a new study shows a link between what kids are seeing on T.V. and how much they eat. So if you've got a young snacker at home who likes to watch T.V., or a child who eats meals in front of the tube, you'll want to keep a close eye on just how much they are consuming. This study, conducted by the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale, involved 118 children between the ages of 7 and 11. Each child was given a bowl of Goldfish crackers and allowed to watch a cartoon. One group was shown ads for games and entertainment during the commercial breaks. The other was shown ads for junk food like potato chips and fruit roll-ups. The group who saw the food ads ate 45% more Goldfish than the group that saw the game ads. The results suggest a correlation between how much someone eats and what they are watching on T.V. My guess is that a study of adults would yield similar results. Do you or your children eat meals or snacks in front of the T.V.? Have you ever noticed a correlation between what you (or your child) are watching and how much you're eating? |
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