Watch more TV, watch your waist expand
Boosting activity, sleeping more and watching less television will help young children maintain a healthy body weight, new EU-funded research shows. An outcome of the IDEFICS ('Identification and prevention of dietary- and lifestyle- induced health effects in children and infants') project, the study shows that the more time children spend in front of a TV or computer screen, the greater the odds that they will gain weight. IDEFICS is backed with EUR 13 million under the Food Quality and Safety Thematic area of the EU's Sixth Framework Programme (FP6). The findings were presented at the 11th European Nutrition Conference in Madrid, Spain in late October, ahead of this month's final IDEFICS meeting in Bremen, Germany. A breakdown of the figures shows that considerable differences exist across Europe with respect to the amount of time children sleep each night. In Estonia, for instance, children sleep 9 to 10 hours, while Belgian children sleep more than 11 hours. Children living in southern and eastern Europe sleep less than their peers in the north. The findings indicate how children who sleep less than 9 hours each night have double the chance of being overweight compared to children that sleep 11 hours. It should be noted that the study did not find that season, daylight duration, parental education level, other lifestyle factors, or whether the child was already overweight influenced the amount of time a child spent sleeping. Led by the Bremen Institute for Prevention Research and Social Medicine (BIPS) at the University of Bremen in Germany, the IDEFICS partners identified clusters of obesogenic behaviours (i.e. behaviours promoting obesity), and discovered that it is such behaviours, including TV watching, that are linked to weight. It is clear that the waist circumference of a child expands if he or she spends more time sitting watching TV, for instance, than engaging in physical activity. What the study could not confirm is whether the link between screen time and obesity is triggered to greater extent by physical inactivity or by the consumption of food. The IDEFICS team believes the Internet should be used to raise awareness about the impact of food and drink on weight. 'Eating in front of the screen should be minimised, and emphasis should be placed on nutritious snacks such as fruit and vegetables,' explains IDEFICS coordinator and BIPS Professor Wolfgang Ahrens. '[The first] choice for quenching thirst should be water and other non-caloric drinks. Consumption can be encouraged by enhancing availability at kindergarten, school and home. Parents and caretakers need to be aware they are important role models.' Children who are more active and spend less time in front of the screen usually eat healthily. Because the existing environment affects activity and diet, urban planners and policymakers should focus their efforts on ensuring that children are offered safe and enticing spaces to move and play, including green spaces and car-free streets. 'It's not right to blame just the parents if their children are overweight,' Professor Ahrens says. 'It's time to fully acknowledge the environmental impact on health behaviour. The more effectively policymakers, teachers, caretakers and parents work together in creating a healthy environment, the easier it will be for children to learn healthy living.' Other IDEFICS partners are from Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Spain, France, Italy, Cyprus, Hungary, Sweden and the United Kingdom.For more information, please visit: IDEFICS:http://www.ideficsstudy.eu/Idefics/Bremen Institute for Prevention Research and Social Medicine (BIPS):http://www.bips.uni-bremen.de/index.php?lang=en
Countries
Belgium, Cyprus, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Spain, France, Hungary, Italy, Sweden, United Kingdom