Children’s screen time linked to bad diet
A STUDY has found that five and six-year-olds’ screentime is linked with low fruit and vegetable consumption and high intake of unhealthy snacks such as crisps, chocolate and biscuits.
The research, led by Dr Emma Haycraft, of Loughborough University’s School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences, also suggests that parents’ own tech and eating habits are influential to their youngsters’ behaviours.
The study was funded by the British Heart Foundation and conducted by Dr Natalie Pearson.
The results found that screen-time and poor eating were consistently linked and that parents’ habits were also related to their youngsters’ behaviours.
The study also revealed that children who ate meals in front of the TV and children who had a higher availability of energy-dense snack foods at home were more likely to have higher screen-time, lower fruit and vegetable consumption and higher energy-dense snack food consumption.
Dr Haycraft said: “We were surprised to see that almost 79% of children aged five to six consumed less than the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, yet around half of children ate almost two energy-dense snacks a day.
“It is concerning that these behaviours cluster in chil- dren from such a young age.
“There is a lot of evidence linking screen time to adverse health consequences such as obesity, and a lot of evidence linking unhealthy diets to poor health outcomes such as obesity.
“It is important to understand the link between screen-time and unhealthy eating because together they have an even greater effect on health.”