Cody the Couch Potato and Freddy Fitness are planning on having dinner together. Unfortunately, they cannot decide where to eat. Freddy wants to eat at the dinner table but Cody doesn't want to miss his television show. Freddy is upset because he knows the statistics that show that eating in front of the television is causing obesity. Cody just doesn't want to listen. Will Freddy Fitness be able to convince Cody the Couch Potato to eat at the dinner table?
Freddy: Cody, I really want to be able to spend quality time with you while we eat because we haven't seen each other in a really long time. Let's go to the grocery, prepare a healthy meal and sit down at the dinner table and eat it together.
Cody: That takes too much time! I'll miss my show! Let's just order a pizza and watch my show instead.
Freddy: Haven't you heard that eating in front of the television can cause weight gain?
Cody: I seriously doubt that's true. You're too obsessed with fitness, Freddy. It's okay to eat in front of the television. Regardless of where you eat, you're still sitting down. We can even make the meal if you're that set on it; I just don't want to miss my show.
Freddy: Really, Cody, it's true! It could help prevent Type II Diabetes. A study in Clinical Nutrition showed that people with Type II Diabetes eat faster than other people and fast eating is linked to weight gain. It takes 20 minutes for your body to realize it's full and when you eat fast, you eat more because you're body can't recognize it's actually full that quickly. When you eat in front of the TV, you eat faster because you aren't paying attention to your food, just to the screen in front of you. Another study published in Appetite illustrated that people who watch TV or read a newspaper rather than just focusing on their meal snack more than others after lunch time. Furthermore, when you eat mindfully, you tend to eat only when you're hungry. Eating in front of the TV distracts you and you continue eating even when you're full.
Cody: Really? C'mon. It can't be that big of a deal to my health!
Freddy: Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved, looked into how many people are eating in front of the television and found that "six in ten US households watch TV while eating" (270). More and more people in the US are obese and overweight. In the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, they found that eating while being distracted not only makes you eat more at that meal but also makes you eat more later on. A review of 24 studies by British researchers showed that people eat as much as 25% more food later in the day if they eat their meal in front of a television or some other distraction. More than one third of adults in the United States are obese! That's 78.6 million people, Cody! And those statistics don't even include those adults who are considered overweight! More than two thirds of adults aged 20 and older are considered overweight. Being overweight can cause many health issues; it causes heart disease, stroke, Type II Diabetes and some types of cancer. The medical cost of obesity in America is over $147 billion dollars annually. Families need to make a change in order to prevent obesity and weight gain. So many children are eating in front of the television which is leading to rising numbers of children who are overweight. The television can be fun occasionally, but according to Raj Patel, "the television's interaction with food has cemented a modern way of eating" (270). Not many families eat at a dinner table together, enjoy food and each other's company. Instead, they are sitting in front of a TV, mindlessly eating more than what is necessary to fill them up.
Cody: Wow, Freddy, I had no idea! I'll record my show and will watch it some other time- NOT when I'm eating!
Works Cited:
Patel, Raj. "Chapter 8." Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System. Brooklyn, NY: Melville House Pub., 2008. N. pag. Print.
"Obesity and Overweight." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 14 Jan. 2015. Web. 26 Feb. 2015.
US News. U.S.News & World Report, n.d. Web. 01 Mar. 2015.
"Distracted Eating May Add to Weight Gain - Harvard Health Blog."
Harvard Health Blog RSS. N.p., 29 Mar. 2013. Web. 01 Mar. 2015.
Innes, Emma. "Why Eating in Front of the TV Makes You Fat: You Consume 25% More LATER in the Day without Realising."
Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 18 Mar. 2013. Web. 01 Mar. 2015.
"Adult Obesity Facts."
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 09 Sept. 2014. Web. 11 Feb. 2015.
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