"In 2007, Neumark-Sztainer's study in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior indicated that teens in families that watched TV while eating together had a lower-quality diet than children of families that turned off the tube while eating together. Teens watching television ate fewer vegetables, calcium-rich food and grains; they also consumed more soft drinks than their peers who ate meals without the TV on.
And a 2010 study in the International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition showed that school kids who spent prolonged hours in front of television tend to be overweight or obese. A national sample of adolescents indicated that 64 percent of 11- to 18-year-olds had the TV on during meals.
One reason for the weight gain, Burley says, is that people tend to eat more slowly -- and consume less food -- when they are not glued to the tube."
Bottom Line:
If we turn the TV off, he added, "we can engage others and pay attention to our food. It gets closer to what we all claim our values to be."
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_108193.html
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