The time spent in front of the screens would encourage children to eat less balanced. These bad habits would be very harmful to their health.
- In front of screens, children snack on often fatty and sugary food
- These bad eating habits are very socially related.
Candies, chocolate bars, cookies… When the youngest are in front of the screens, they love to snack. And, of course, these are often unhealthy foods that contain a lot of sugars or bad fats. A recent study attests to this link between time spent in front of screens and poor eating habits in children and adolescents. These works are available online, in Journal of Clinical Medicine. According to the authors, all screens are concerned: computers, mobile phones, televisions. They point in particular to the responsibility of video games, in front of which adolescents can sometimes spend too much time. To reach these conclusions, researchers from the University of Malaga, Spain, analyzed more than 3,800 young people, aged 8 to 16, attending 245 schools located throughout the country. They thus collected data on the level of physical activity, physical inactivity, lifestyle and weight (especially in the case of obesity) of these children and adolescents as well as other members of their family.
The Mediterranean diet, abandoned by the younger generation
“The Mediterranean diet is one of the most complete, balanced and healthy diets, as it prevents obesity and cardiovascular disease”, underlines Julia Wärnberg, researcher at the University of Malaga, expert in nutrition and main author of this study. Traditionally, like many countries around this sea, the Spaniards follow the Mediterranean diet. It is a cuisine based on products that are good for the body, such as olive oil, fruits, vegetables, legumes, etc. Dishes can be rich but are balanced. This diet is reputed to be virtuous because it would prevent certain cancers and cardiovascular diseases, slow down the aging of cells, reduce the probability of childhood and adolescent obesity while improving their health in adulthood.
But, according to this study, the Mediterranean diet is abandoned by young Spaniards, in favor of a fattier, sweeter and therefore unhealthy food. This phenomenon would be due to the time spent in front of the screens which would induce a lower consumption of fruits, vegetables, legumes, and other products of the Mediterranean diet. This new generation willingly replaces them with sweets, cookies or even fast food, often synonymous with junk food. “It is essential to promote this diet (Mediterranean)as well as its associated lifestyle habits, such as physical activity and reduction of sedentary behavior“, continues the researcher. In effect, according to the National Observatory of Physical Activity and Sedentariness (Onaps), sitting for more than 3 hours a day is responsible for 3.8% of deaths from all causes in 58 countries – including France – i.e. more than 400,000 deaths per year.
Social inequalities encourage poor eating behaviors
The study also highlights the importance of economic and social conditions. Indeed, children and adolescents with parents with low levels of education are more likely to adopt poor lifestyles, especially in terms of food. They would have a less good knowledge of nutrition and would not be informed of the long-term effects of these bad eating habits: weight gain, diabetes, cholesterol, cardiovascular pathologies, etc. These families would also have less money to consume good products or enroll their children in sports clubs. Multiple factors that prevent these young people from having a healthy lifestyle… Thus, from the large kindergarten section, more than one worker’s child in seven – or 13.9% – are overweight, compared to 8.6% of those whose father is an executive, according to a report by the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs, entitled “Social inequalities in health in childhood” and published in May 2011.
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