Day 6: More Anti-TV Stats

I've been think more and more about how TV, or the lack there or, might be affecting my health. Here are more statistics supporting the theory that I was watching too much TV:

Millions of Americans are so hooked on television that they fit the criteria for substance abuse as defined in the official psychiatric manual, according to Rutgers University psychologist and TV-Free America board member Robert Kubey. Heavy TV viewers exhibit five dependency symptoms--two more than necessary to arrive at a clinical diagnosis of substance abuse. These include:
1) using TV as a sedative
2) indiscriminate viewing
3) feeling loss of control while viewing
4) feeling angry with oneself for watching too much
5) inability to stop watching;
6) feeling miserable when kept from watching.

I can honestly say numbers 1, 2, 4 apply to me. For number 6, I wouldn't say I feel "miserable" when I'm not watching TV. Sometimes it feels uncomfortable, but other times if really feels good to not be watching TV.

Violence and addiction are not the only TV-related health problems. A National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey released in October 1995 found 4.7 million children between the ages of 6-17 (11% of this age group) to be severely overweight, more than twice the rate during the 1960's. The main culprits: inactivity (these same children average more than 22 hours of television-viewing a week) and a high-calorie diet. A 1991 study showed that there were an average of 200 junk food ads in four hours of children's Saturday morning cartoons.

According to William H. Deitz, pediatrician and prominent obesity expert at Tufts University School of Medicine, "The easiest way to reduce inactivity is to turn off the TV set. Almost anything else uses more energy than watching TV."

Children are not the only Americans suffering from weight problems; one-third of American adults are overweight. According to an American Journal of Public Health study, an adult who watches three hours of TV a day is far more likely to be obese than an adult who watches less than one hour.

Sometimes the problem is not too much weight; it's too little. Seventy-five percent of American women believe they are too fat. Not surprising when one takes into account that female models and actresses are twenty-three percent thinner than the average woman and are thinner than ninety-five percent of the female population!

With statistics like these, I continue to work towards a TV Free home environment!