WATCHING TELEVISION MAY DRAIN TIME THAT COULD BE SPENT EXERCISING
A study of predominantly low-income, racial/ethnic minority housing residents found each hour spent watching television reduced a person’s level of physical activity and lessened the likelihood of getting enough daily exercise.
In the analysis of the television viewing habits of 486 adults, the average time spent watching television was 3.6 hours a day, with each hour in front of the tube associated with 144 fewer steps taken. And television viewing time also was associated with a decreased likelihood that a person would achieve the health goal of walking 10,000 steps in a day.
“Accumulating evidence clearly supports the recommendation to reduce hours of television viewing as part of a comprehensive plan to increase physical activity (and to reduce obesity),” the study’s authors said. “However, such plans should also include specific recommendations for television-replacement strategies that require the exertion of physical activity.”
[From: “Television viewing and pedometer-determined physical activity among multiethnic low income housing residents.” ]
MOST CONSUMERS UNDERESTIMATE CALORIES, FAT IN RESTAURANT FOOD; MENUS COULD HELP Requiring restaurants to print nutrition information on menus could be a helpful tool for the majority of diners who vastly underestimate the calories, fat and saturated fat in restaurant meals.
Consumers tend to underestimate the amount of calories in high calorie restaurant meals by almost half, and do a similarly inaccurate job in estimating fat and saturated fat content, according to a survey of about 200 adult diners. Yet when those consumers have printed nutritional information on a menu, many report they will order foods lower in calories, fat and sodium, the study found.
With 70 million meals and snacks consumed outside the home yearly in the United States, the study’s findings point to a need to help Americans make wiser food choices when eating out.
[From: “Attacking the Obesity Epidemic: An Examination of the Potential Health Benefits of Nutrition Information Provision in Restaurants.” ]
Posted by: sol, on 29th July 2006
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