THURSDAY, March 1 (HealthDay News) -- Extra television-viewing time by 3-year-old children is associated with unhealthful dietary habits including greater sugary drink, fast food and overall calorie consumption, according to research presented during the American Heart Association's 47th Annual Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention.
Sonia A. Miller, B.A., of Harvard Medical School in Boston, and colleagues analyzed questionnaire data from the mothers of 1,203 children involved in a Massachusetts childhood nutrition study.
The children, all 3-year-olds, watched a mean of 1.7 hours of television daily. Eighty-seven percent lived in families earning more than $40,000 annually; 72 percent of their mothers had a college degree or more, the researchers report.
The investigators found that for every extra daily hour of television, the children consumed one more sugary drink per week, 0.3 more monthly fast-food servings, 0.06 extra daily servings of red and processed meats, and a greater percentage of calories from trans fat and maybe saturated fat, for a total of 46.3 more kilocalories a day. Conversely, more television viewing was also connected to less fruit, vegetable, calcium, fiber and other healthful food consumption.
"Among 3-year-olds, more TV viewing is associated with adverse dietary practices that are related to overweight or cardiovascular disease risk," the authors write.
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