In this episode, I talk about this research article:
Relationship of Physical Activity and Television Watching With Body Weight and Level of Fatness Among Children: Results From the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
JAMA. 1998;279(12):938–942. doi:10.1001/jama.279.12.938
You can discuss this with your teen and get the conversation going .
Hope you find it helpful.
Dr Gourgari is a pediatric endocrinologist, certified in obesity medicine expert and weight loss coach for teens with more than 15 years of experience. She helps teens build healthy habits that last, so they can feel happier, be more confident and love their body again .
To get a free copy of 30 healthy and easy recipes for teens that are high in protein, visit
https://lifestyleforteens.com/recipes
To learn more about the LIFT Program, visit lifestyleforteens.com/program
In this episode, I talk about this research article:
Relationship of Physical Activity and Television Watching With Body Weight and Level of Fatness Among Children: Results From the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
JAMA. 1998;279(12):938–942. doi:10.1001/jama.279.12.938
You can discuss this with your teen and get the conversation going .
Hope you find it helpful.
Dr Gourgari is a pediatric endocrinologist, certified in obesity medicine expert and weight loss coach for teens with more than 15 years of experience. She helps teens build healthy habits that last, so they can feel happier, be more confident and love their body again .
To get a free copy of 30 healthy and easy recipes for teens that are high in protein, visit
https://lifestyleforteens.com/recipes
To learn more about the LIFT Program, visit lifestyleforteens.com/program
Are you getting frustrated with what to feed a teenager who is always hungry? Everybody knows that teenagers have a huge appetite. It seems like you need to feed them constantly to satisfy their hunger. It's even more difficult where teenagers who struggle with their weight truly want to make changes like cut down on junk food or stop ever eating, and they can't. There's frustration, isolation, stress, and that's why I decided to create a recipe collection of 30 easy and healthy meals for teenagers. They're all high in protein to satisfy your teenager's hunger and they can all be ready in less than 30 minutes. If you want to grab a free copy, go to lifestyleforteenscom for the last recipes.
Speaker 2:This is the Lifestyle and Weight Loss for Teens podcast. If you are a mom and want to help your child who is struggling to lose weight, you are in the right place. If you are looking for healthy lifestyle tips, dr Gorgary is here to help you understand the science around safe weight loss in teens and children, because what works for adult weight loss is not always the best for children. This podcast is for educational purposes only. Dr Gorgary does not provide medical, psychological or nutrition therapy advice. You should not use this information to diagnose or treat any health problems without consulting your own medical practitioner and now your host, dr Jenny Gorgary.
Speaker 1:Welcome back for another episode. I hope you will enjoy today's topic, which is TV and pediatric obesity. So I really don't want to ruin the pleasure of watching TV and I know how good it feels, especially if it's like Friday night and you want to watch a movie or series on TV with the whole family, perhaps Enjoying some nice dinner, enjoy a drink or soda or water, and it's just so relaxing. And, trust me, I'm not here to take this away from you. This is an important part of our lives. But TV anything any other pleasure in life if you overdo it or if you lose control of it, if you don't use it right, it can actually have the negative effect and instead of creating pleasure, it can actually create pain and misery. And I'm just here to just discuss paper one research, one small part of the research that has been done around this topic, and my hope is that at the end of this episode you will have a better understanding of why do we insist or why do we recommend to avoid screen time and TV and have some limits, because it actually is associated with pediatric obesity. Okay, but before I get to the article of the day, I just wanted to start by saying what is the recommended amount of screen time by the American Academy of Pediatrics? So recently those guidelines have been adjusted to reflect and take into account the family decisions. So American Academy of Pediatrics, as of now, does not recommend any TV watching and screen time for children that are less than 18 months, unless it is only for social interaction let's say it's used for face them, to see grandmother and things like that. And then for older kids, it is recommended that parents come up with an individualized plan for every child and they create certain limits of how much screen time is advisable, and I would highly recommend you have this discussion with your pediatrician to ensure that the children don't watch too much TV and they have enough time for other developmental activities and also enough time for physical activities and sports and do their homework and things like that.
Speaker 1:Let me also mention something else. I will be talking about one research that was done in regards to television watching. But in reality it's not only television when we say and this is an older study, it was published in 1998, but now it's not only television. People and children spend a lot of time on iPad, on phones, in front of laptop or computer, and so it used to be that it was mainly TV, the basic sedentary activity. However, nowadays there's exposure to other devices that also count as screen time, so keep that in mind when we refer to TV watching. In reality, this could be applied to watching of all screen time.
Speaker 1:Ok, so let me just now jump to the paper that there is, this excellent research that was done, as I mentioned, a few years ago, in 1998. It was published in JAMA, which is one of the most respectful scientific journals in the field. It was done by Dr Anderson and his group. It was done at the John Hopkins University School of Medicine and the title of this manuscript is the relationship of physical activity and television watching with body weight and level of fatness among children. So this study was what we call an observational study. So the researchers didn't try to intervene and somehow change the behavior of the children. They just wanted to describe what is happening and whether the children that watch more TV basically are more obese than children that watch less TV.
Speaker 1:In order to answer that question, the more patients, the more subjects you have enrolled in such a study, the stronger the results. So this was actually a very big study. It enrolled a total of 4,063 children that were between the ages of 8 and 16. And they were examined as part of the National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey, which is also known as AINHANES. It was the third AINHANES, so the researchers actually took particular to recruit subjects from different ethnic backgrounds. So in this particular study they put more effort into recruiting non-inspanic, white, non-inspanic black, mexican-american and, of course, white children. So there was a good representation from different ethnic backgrounds, which is not always the case in many epidemiologic studies.
Speaker 1:So they interviewed these children, they went to their home and they asked them questions. And they asked them questions about their exercise and they also asked them questions about how much TV they're watching. And two weeks after this interview took place, they asked the children to go to the research center where they actually took measurements of their body fatness and they calculated what we call body mass index. Now for those of you who don't know what body mass index, I would advise you to go back to my first episode where I explain what body mass index is and how we can calculate it. But basically it's the most important measure and that's how we define if a child is overweight or not, based on the body mass index. So the study design was, as I said, observational. They just wanted to collect information and then try to find whether there is an association between television watching and body fatness. Now, another method they use to estimate the body fatness is what we call skin folding, and basically what that is is they have a specific tool where they can calculate how thick the fatness of the subcutaneous tissue is, and it's another measure, let's say, of calculating the amount of fatness. So let's go now to the results. So it was.
Speaker 1:As I mentioned, this was a great study because it had a very big sample size. A total of 4,063 children participated in that study. They were between the ages of eight and 16. And they looked at the results of their television, like how many television, how much television they were watching, and what they found was that children that were watching less than two hours of television per day were compared to children that were watching two or three hours per day or children that were watching more than four hours per day. They found that, the group of children that watched more than four hours per day of TV, they were significantly more overweight than children that watched less than two hours of TV, or they watched two or three hours of TV. And when they found the similar results, when they measure the amount of fatness, also by looking at the skin fall thickness like how thick is the skin that again, children that watch more than four hours of TV per day had significantly higher amount of fatness compared to the kids that were watching two to three hours of TV or less than two hours of TV. And even those that watch two or three hours of TV they were also significantly more overweight than those that watch less than two hours. So it was like a gradual increase of the TV Watching was associated with a gradual increase in the amount of fatness.
Speaker 1:So, as I mentioned, the researchers also looked at how much physical activity the kids were doing, and I'm not going to focus too much on the physical activity at this point because I want to concentrate on the TV. However, just to give you an idea, they found that, as a total group, approximately 80% of kids were exercising at least three times per week or more. However, this percentage was significantly lower in the girls that they were in the 14 to 16 age. So only 65% of girls that they were between 14 and 16 had vigorous activity more than three times per week, and also this percentage was lower in Mexican-American girls that they were 72.6%, non-hispanic black girls was 69.4% and non-Hispanic white girls it was 77.1%. So, while the difference in the exercise was not really significantly different between boys and girls, in those that they were less than 14 years of age, when they hit the 14 years there seems to be a discrepancy in a teenager girls exercised in general less than boys and in fact the researchers mentioned that this may actually even be an overestimation, given that this particular survey was done during the summertime, when kids tend to be more active compared to winter time. So something to keep in mind.
Speaker 1:So what is the main conclusion? We all thought, or assumed, that if you are watching more TV, that contributes to the obesity, but in fact this study actually proved it and it is really striking that an hour of TV can actually make a significant difference, because if you think about it, four hours compared to two to three hours is really one more hour per day, and two to three hours compared to two hours or less than two hours is again one hour, or maybe two per group. So Even one to two hours difference in TV watching, of TV watching every day, can make a significant difference in the amount of obesity. What is the take-home message here? Besides the fact that we need to explore a little better and understand why there are these differences in female girls and in certain ethnic groups about physical activity? We also should keep in mind that TV watching can actually be an important factor when it comes to pediatric obesity.
Speaker 1:So, if you are a teenager who is trying to lose weight, or if you would like, or if you have a teenager that, if you're a parent who have a teenager, try to target the amount of TV that you're watching every day and you may be surprised. How do you think more time on TV make us gain weight? It's not only that we watch TV and we don't exercise, right? So that's one obvious explanation and a very common one, but it's more into that Like.
Speaker 1:So there is, as I mentioned, there is often food associated with TV watching, and oftentimes, when we watch TV and we eat, we don't really pay attention to our hunger and fullness. Right, we may continue to eat just because we enjoy watching the movie, and we keep eating, eating Just to increase the pleasure. However, that doesn't mean we're hungry or we really want to eat. Right, we're not consciously eating. We are eating, but we kind of like don't pay attention to what we eat. Even though we don't pay attention, though, that food still goes inside our body and it's a factor that contributes to obesity, right? So not paying attention to how much we are eating also contributes to pediatric obesity. Another reason is that oftentimes when you're watching TV, there are a lot of advertising of delicious food like cakes and sodas and ice cream, and you name it, right. So it does create those cravings and the desire for all that junk food that is around, and it can taste delicious. So it is possible that you know, when you're exposed more to those advertisements about all this junk food you're like more likely to go ahead and grab and have that. So these are just some ideas of how TV may affect our weight and, of course, the goal of this episode today is not.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to tell you what to do, right? That's always your decision. But I'm just here to empower you with the knowledge of making the right decision about your life and just think about it. Think about it, and if I had and actually I have a small challenge for you, if you are one of the people that love challenges, I challenge you to have your notebook and just keep notes of how much TV and, in general, how much screen time you spend every day. And you may tell me that you know what I'm in the group, that I don't watch more than two hours TV. So I'm good. There's nothing for me to work on this, and that may be the case, so that's great. But I still challenge you Keep notes, just literally say this is how much.
Speaker 1:This is what I did and count the time that you spend on your computer, count the time that you spend on your phone, count the time that you spend on the TV anything that is screen time. Just count it down. Count it down for yourself, count it down for your children, and you may be surprised, and it's not a bad thing if you're surprised. In fact, it could be a great thing, right, because you may identify an area where you can work more, and I hope this was helpful. That's all I had for today and enjoy your life and your TV. As I said, it is a pleasure. I absolutely am with you on that. Just spend a few more minutes to think about it a little more. And is actually TV watching serving you, or is it making you gain extra pounds that you would really like to get rid of. Ok, my friends, take care. Bye, bye.
Speaker 2:If you enjoyed listening to this podcast, I invite you to come check out the Lift program. It's Dr Gorgary's 12-week coaching program for teens and their moms, where we take all this information, we apply it to your daily life and we work together so your teenager learns how to create a healthy lifestyle so they can feel happier, more confident, less stressed and love their body again. Visit the website at lifestyleforteanscom and click on the work with me and free resources to learn more about this program and get free help to start this journey right away. Thanks for tuning in and we'll catch you in the next episode of Lifestyle and Weight Loss for Teens.