The percentage of children in America who are obese jumped from 6.5 percent in 1980 to 15.3 percent in 2000. At the same time, there has been an explosion in media targeted towards children, who on average watch five and a half hours of TV a day! Unmonitored amounts of television viewing have quickly taken their toll on the health of America's children. Parents need to take control of the situation immediately.
Experts on childhood obesity have found that when children watch TV, they snack obsessively. This is bad at any time, but especially when you consider that while watching TV, children's metabolic rates fall below what they would be if they were sleeping. Food advertisements are now geared toward children, further urging them toward unhealthy food choices. The worst effect of watching too much TV for our youngsters is that they are not getting the exercise that their bodies need.
Children do not always know how to make the best choices for their health, so parents need to take responsibility for our children's daily activities. Take the TV's out of your children's rooms and teach them to actively play!
Only when the time spent watching TV becomes time spent being active are we going to see the childhood obesity rate drop. Do yourselves and your children a favor ' stop the dependence on television!' Valerie Goodyear is a junior language arts major.
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Letter to the Editor
