BAD EATING habits among children are the result of spending hours in front of the television, warn scientists in the study published in Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity. The study says that viewing television for hours predicts poor diet in the future.

Dr Daheia Barr-Anderson along with a team of researchers from the University of Minnesota investigated the relationship between viewing television and eating habits. A study involving 2000 high and middle school children was conducted by Dr Barr-Anderson and the team.

"To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the association between television viewing and diet over the transition from adolescence into young adulthood. We’ve shown that TV viewing during adolescence predicts poorer dietary intake patterns five years later," said Dr Barr-Anderson.

The study found that high school kids who watched television for more than five hours per day had, took more snacks, fried stuff, fast food, sugar-sweetened beverages; while the ones who watched television for lesser amount of time took higher intakes of fruits, vegetables, rich food as compared to the former ones.

On this Dr Barr-Anderson added, "These less than healthy foodstuffs are commonly advertised on television while healthy foods rarely receive the same publicity. Although young people may be aware that many foods advertised on television are not healthy, they may chose to ignore or do not fully realize the consequences, because the actors they see advertising and eating the foods in the commercials are usually not overweight.”

We all like to munch while watching television but with kids, this habit may lead to difficult consequences on their health. So, to make your kid healthy what you need is, less television and better food.