TV addicts do not value nutrition

According to a University of Houston (UH) researcher, all of those hours in front of the television may lead to increased snacking .

A "fatalistic view toward eating well" and "nutritional knowledge" are two of the measurements professor Temple Northup included in a cross-sectional survey of 591 participants. He also included "television and news media usage" and "nutritional intake."

Northup stated that the research model was based on similar measures that look at cancer prevention.

In a review of the cancer prevention studies, Northup found that people who adopt a fatalistic view towards cancer, a view that it was too difficult to understand causes of cancer well enough to do anything about it, tend to have lower self-efficacy toward reducing risky behaviors that may cause cancer.

In the context of TV use and unhealthy eating, he believed that those with a more fatalistic view toward eating well tend to eat more snack foods. If these individuals think nutrition is too difficult to understand, they will probably give up trying to eat well.

Northup suggested that because consumers are inundated with advertising for unhealthy food and messages about the latest trends in what you should (or shouldn't) eat, they develop these poor attitudes toward and knowledge about eating well.

The study recently is published in the International Journal of Communication and Health.

ANI