Turn off the TV

I read an interesting article on Time.com today about the foods that get advertised on TV and what your diet would look like if you ate only things advertised in TV commercials.

Think about it a little. If you watch TV much and pay attention to the commercials instead of just skipping over them with Tivo (if you have that option), what are the most important things in life? Cars, Beer, new clothes, perfume, fast food, fine dining and weight loss...to name a few. Hmmm...fine dining, fast food and weight loss. A bit of a paradox eh?

The research team from Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah, GA watched 84 hours of prime time television and 12 hours of Saturday morning cartoons. Then they formulated a 2000 calorie a day diet based only on the things that they saw advertised on TV. Here's a taste:

"When the research team calculated the nutritional content of a 2,000-calorie-a-day diet containing only foods that were advertised on television, they found that it exceeded the government's recommended daily amount of fat by 20 times and had 25 times the recommended daily intake of sugar. "That's almost a month's worth of sugar in one day," notes study leader Michael Mink."

Yuck! Not only that, but the daily intake was significantly deficient of important vitamins and minerals like potassium, calcium, Vitamins D and E for example. Not that this should really be surprising to anyone who thinks about the food they are putting in their mouths, but still, that's disgusting.

To quote your mother "Turn off the TV and go play outside." You'll be happy you did.