Poor Nutrition – Not Screen Time – to Blame for Child Obesity

While it sounds like a quick fix, turning off the television and unplugging the video games won’t help your child lose weight.

There’s an established correction between childhood obesity and the number of hours spent in front of a screen watching television or video games. But new data suggests it is not necessarily true that increased screen time will lead a child to gain weight.

Instead of thinking that watching television makes kids fat, experts are now suggesting that fat kids just happen to watch a lot of television.

Ultimately, kids aren’t packing on weight because they’re spending more time in front of the tv. They’re eating too much. A major clinical study demonstrated that educating families and children with nutritional counseling, either with or without additional information about exercise, made all the difference in the children’s weight loss. Kids participating in the study lost an average of 15 pounds in six months just by changing their diets.

So why the correlation between television and obesity? It’s likely that families who watch hours of television per day are not well educated in proper nutrition and dietary health.

Youth Fitness and Obesity Prevention Program

At Bon Secours In Motion our Youth Fitness program promotes physical fitness and nutritional education in a safe and fun environment. Each participant receives a complete nutritional evaluation with a registered dietitian who has experience working with children and adolescents. Using their background information, a dietitian will develop a personalized eating plan based on your child’s lifestyle, activities, nutritional needs, and food preferences.

Want to learn more? Read about the Youth Fitness program or contact us for more information!