DrTri Weekly Health & Fitness HomeWork for Feb 22, 2009

Philo Farsworth “invented” television and got his patent in in 1927 amidst some controversy from a Russian guy, Vladimir Zworykin, and RCA. He later was ‘over run by big business’, as he would put it, and became depressed and addicted to alcohol and painkillers.

So, in tribute to Mr. Farnsworth, this week we are going to boycott television!!!
That’s right, no television for 1 week.
You can do it, I know you can. For some this will be easy. For the rest of you (us), this will be a great exercise to see how dependent/addicted/reliant/etc.. on TV we really are.

If this does not sound that difficult to you, then I have a further challenge for you:
Disconnect yourself from all electronic information and entertainment media for this week. TV, radio, computer news, podcasts, and the like. You can still use your computer and fancy phone, but just don’t watch any movies, television shows, recorded news, and don’t read any electronic news. Any information and entertainment this week needs to come from printed word on a paper/magazine page. I would go as far to include Kindles in the electronic realm, so technically you would eliminate that also.

So, 1 week. Can you do it?
I know a guy who works in TV/advertising and up until about a year or so ago did not even own a television at home.
If he could do it, then you surely can! Poor Pete now has an HD TV and HD-DVD player...

Just for some last electronic media reading, I have included some recent interesting studies and highlighted the key points in red.
If you go to pubmed.com and search for television with any number of other terms (brain function, cognition, activity, etc.) you will find a whole bunch of interesting information...

Have a great week,

M”I’m not a Luddite”Ross

Pers Soc Psychol Bull. 2003 Jan;29(1):76-85.Click here to read Links
Watching your troubles away: television viewing as a stimulus for subjective self-awareness.
Moskalenko S, Heine SJ.

Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia 19104, USA. smoskale@psych.upenn.edu

Three studies explored the role of television viewing in eliciting subjective self-awareness and positive self-feelings. Study 1 assessed the effects of self-awareness manipulations via exposure to a neutral television program on actual-ideal discrepancies. Those who watched television showed significantly smaller self-discrepancies than those who did not, independent of mood. Study 2 demonstrated the ecological validity of this finding by replicating it with people watching television in their own homes. Study 3 investigated whether manipulations of self-feelings affected television watching. Results indicated that those who received failure feedback watched television longer than those in a control condition who likewise watched television longer than those who received success feedback. Television appears to be an effective stimulus to direct the focus away from oneself and to render people less aware of how they are falling short of their standards.

Int J Behav Med. 2007;14(2):57-62.Links
Negative psychological effects of watching the news in the television: relaxation or another intervention may be needed to buffer them!
Szabo A, Hopkinson KL.

National Institute for Sport Talent Care, Budapest, Hungary. szabo.attila@nupi.hu

The psychological effects of televised news were studied in 2 groups (n = 179) of undergraduate students who watched a 15-min random newscast followed by either a 15-min progressive relaxation exercise or a 15-min lecture (control condition). Subjective measures of state anxiety, total mood disturbance (TMD), positive affect, and negative affect were obtained before and after the news, as well as following relaxation exercise or the lecture. The results show that state anxiety and TMD increased, whereas positive affect decreased in both groups after watching the news and 15 min later they returned to baseline (pre-news) only in the relaxation group, whereas they remained unchanged in the control group. These findings demonstrate that watching the news on television triggers persisting negative psychological feelings that could not be buffered by attention-diverting distraction (i.e., lecture), but only by a directed psychological intervention such as progressive relaxation.

Minerva Pediatr. 2002 Oct;54(5):423-36.
Television and children's consumption patterns. A review of the literature.
Coon KA, Tucker KL.

Nutritional Epidemiology, Jean Mayer USDA Human, Nutrition Research Center on Aging, Tufts University, Boston, USA.

The recent increase in childhood obesity has, among other things, focused attention on the role that television may play. This paper summarizes results of studies published in peer review journals since 1970 with data pertaining to the relationship between television use and children's food intake. Studies fall into four categories: content analyses; effects of television advertising on children's food behaviors; television and pediatric obesity, with effects on children's dietary intake and physical activity; and television use and children's food consumption patterns. Content analyses have shown that food is the most frequently advertised product category on children's TV. The majority of these ads target highly sweetened products, but more recently, the proportion from fast food meal promotions has been growing. Controlled studies on children's choices have consistently shown that children exposed to advertising choose advertised food products at significantly higher rates than do those not exposed. Purchase request studies have documented associations between number of hours of TV watched and number of requests from the child to the mother for specific food items, as well as the presence of those items in the home. Greater TV use has been associated with higher intakes of energy, fat, sweet and salty snacks, and carbonated beverages and lower intakes of fruit and vegetables. Several large studies have documented associations between number of hours of TV watched and both the prevalence and incidence of obesity. The combination of lifestyle factors that accompany heavy television use appear to place children at risk of obesity and poor nutritional status.

Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2006 Apr;160(4):436-42.
When children eat what they watch: impact of television viewing on dietary intake in youth.
Wiecha JL, Peterson KE, Ludwig DS, Kim J, Sobol A, Gortmaker SL.

Departments of Society, Human Development, and Health, Harvard School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA. jwiecha@hsph.harvard.edu

OBJECTIVES: To test whether increased television viewing is associated with increased total energy intake and with increased consumption of foods commonly advertised on television, and to test whether increased consumption of these foods mediates the relationship between television viewing and total energy intake. DESIGN: Prospective observational study with baseline (fall 1995) and follow-up (spring 1997) measures of youth diet, physical activity, and television viewing. We used food advertising data to identify 6 food groups for study (sweet baked snacks, candy, fried potatoes, main courses commonly served as fast food, salty snacks, and sugar-sweetened beverages). SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Five public schools in 4 communities near Boston. The sample included 548 students (mean age at baseline, 11.70 years; 48.4% female; and 63.5% white). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Change in total energy intake and intake of foods commonly advertised on television from baseline to follow-up. RESULTS: After adjusting for baseline covariates, each hour increase in television viewing was associated with an additional 167 kcal/d (95% confidence interval, 136-198 kcal/d; P<.001) and with increases in the consumption of foods commonly advertised on television. Including changes in intakes of these foods in regression models provided evidence of their mediating role, diminishing or rendering nonsignificant the associations between change in television viewing and change in total energy intake. CONCLUSIONS: Increases in television viewing are associated with increased calorie intake among youth. This association is mediated by increasing consumption of calorie-dense low-nutrient foods frequently advertised on television.

Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2009 Jan 30;6:7.
Does television viewing predict dietary intake five years later in high school students and young adults?
Barr-Anderson DJ, Larson NI, Nelson MC, Neumark-Sztainer D, Story M.

School of Kinesiology, University of Minnesota, 207 Cooke Hall, 1900 University Ave SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA. barra027@umn.edu.

ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND: 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. This study examined the associations between television viewing behavior with dietary intake five years later. METHODS: Survey data, which included television viewing time and food frequency questionnaires, were analyzed for 564 middle school students (younger cohort) and 1366 high school students (older cohort) who had complete data available at Time 1 (1998-1999) and five years later at Time 2 (mean age at Time 2, 17.2 +/- 0.6 and 20.5 +/- 0.8 years, respectively). Regression models examined longitudinal associations between Time 1 television viewing behavior and Time 2 dietary intake adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics, Time 1 dietary intake, and Time 2 total daily energy intake. RESULTS: Respondents were categorized as limited television users (<2>/=5 hours/daily). Among the younger cohort, Time 1 heavy television viewers reported lower fruit intake and higher sugar-sweetened beverage consumption than the other two groups. Among the older cohort, watching five or more hours of television per day at Time 1, predicted lower intakes of fruits, vegetables, whole grain and calcium-rich foods, and higher intakes of trans fat, fried foods, fast food menu items, snack products, and sugar-sweetened beverages (products commonly advertised on television) five years later. CONCLUSION: Television viewing in middle and high school predicted poorer dietary intake five years later. Adolescents are primary targets of advertising for fast food restaurants, snack foods, and sugar-sweetened beverages, which may influence their food choices. Television viewing, especially during high school, may have long-term effects on eating choices and contribute to poor eating habits in young adulthood.