Kids jumping instead of watching TV. Internet photo.

One hour of television per day may increase obesity risk in kids.
Newsweek (   www.newsweek.com/strong-tv-obesity-link-children-325445 )  reports that research presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies annual meeting indicated “that kindergartners and first graders who watched as little as one hour of television per day were at least 50 percent more likely to be overweight, compared to tykes who watched less than an hour.”
The Los Angeles Times ( www.latimes.com/science/la-sci-sn-one-hour-tv-watching-overweight-obese-20150426-story.html ) reports that investigators also found that “kids who spent at least an hour each day in front of the” television “were…72% more likely to be obese.”

BLOGFINGER MEDICAL COMMENTARY:   By Paul Goldfinger, MD, FACC

When I first went into practice, I thought that vigorous exercise was necessary for health benefits—-such as jogging.  A local newspaper reporter wanted to interview the new cardiologist in town, so she asked me if sex was good for the heart.  I told her that it depended on how you did it, meaning that sex is a kind of exercise and thus could be good for the heart.    She understood my message, and the next day the headline read: “Sex: You knew it was good for something.”

I started jogging myself, but I hated it. So I switched to a treadmill in my house where I could watch TV while I worked out at 5:00 am each day.

But some years later, on a trip to France, I was trying to control my weight, so I tried to watch my diet on the trip, but that lasted about 10 minutes.  The food was so good that I  just ate whatever I wanted including croissants with butter and preserves in the morning and foie gras, duck confit, and pastries and everything else those Frenchies serve.  You can’t get a bad meal over there, so it is hard to resist.  You can reassure yourself that the French have a low risk of heart attacks, but the French Paradox is a complicated subject.

When I got home I expected that I would have gained weight, but I didn’t, and that’s when I learned that merely walking  would do the trick.

Not being a pediatrician, I was surprised that these kindergarten kids could become obese by watching TV for more than an hour each day.  Evidently the pediatricians were surprised also.  The American  Academy of Pediatrics was so alarmed that they issued a fatwah for parents who let their kids watch too much TV and also eat pizza.

ANNIE:  The Original Soundtrack:  It’s tough having to turn off the TV and go out an play!