TV time affect diet patterns

Teenagers who spend hours in front of the television may have a poorer diet as young adults. Prior research has found that television viewing is associated with poor diet quality, though little is known about its long-term impact on diet, particularly during adolescence.To examine the associations between TV viewing behaviour with dietary intake five years later, researchers from America identified 1,366 high school students who completed questionnaires at the outset and again five years later, when they were 20 years old, on average.A clear correlation was found between TV time during high school and diet quality in young adulthood. While the heaviest TV viewers were eating the most junk food five years later, those who had watched TV fewer than two hours per day had the highest intake of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and high-calcium foods.The above findings support experts' recommendations that children should watch no more than two hours of television per day. It's not clear whether television, per se, is the culprit, but it is possible that things like snacking in front of the TV or seeing ads for junk food influence young people's diets. The researchers noted that it is also possible that TV ads for fast food, sweets and snacks tempt teenagers to eat more of those foods.The researchers recommended parents to set a good example for their children by eating right, being physically active and curbing their own TV time.

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