Spending a lot of time watching TV doesn’t typically help us make our healthiest eating choices, as anyone who has found herself bleary-eyed in front of the fridge during the 20 seconds before Netflix automatically starts the next episode can attest.
But, mouth-watering commercials aside, there hasn’t been much of an understanding of why sedentary behavior encourages more snacking and less nutritious choices, until recently. In a new study published in the International Journal of Communication and Health, University of Houston researcher Temple Northup, Ph.D., found that people who get a lot of screen time share a couple of common traits.
“I found people who watch more TV had both a poorer understanding of proper nutrition and a more fatalistic view toward eating well compared to those who watched less TV. In turn, those two items predicted snacking behaviors,” Northupsaid in a statement. “It is important to understand how people develop knowledge about nutrition, including examining nutritional messages found within the media.”
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