RALOALTO, California Switching off the television may help prevent children from getting fattereven if they do not change their diet or increase the amount they exercise, US researchers said last week.
A study of 192 third and forth grades, generally aged eight and nine, found that children who cut the number of hours spent watching television gained nearly two pounds less over a one-year period than those who did not change their television diet.
The findings are important because they show that weight loss can only be the result of a reduction in television view and not any other activity, said Thomas Robison, a pediatrician at Stanford University.
In the study, presented this week to the Pediatric Academic Societies annual meeting in San Francisco, the researchers persuaded about 100 of the students to reduce their television viewing by one-quarter to one third.
Children watching fewer hours of television showed a pretty smaller increase in waist size and had less body fat than other students who continued their took part in any extra exercise.
One explanation for the weight loss could be the children unstuck to the television may simply have been moving around more and burning off calories, Robinson said.
Another reason might be due to eating fewer meals in front of the television. Some studies have suggested that eating in front of the TV encourages people to eat more, Robison said.
The author tried to tell us in the first two paragraphs that_____
dren will get fatter if they eat too much
dren will get thinner if they eat less
dren will get fatter if they spend less time watching TV
dren will get fatter if they spend more time watching TV
Key:D
