Avoiding TV, Videos While Eating Would Likely Reduce The Risk Of Obesity

Eating home-cooked meals with the family without watching TV or videos would likely reduce the risk of obesity, according to a new study. The study involved almost 13,000 Ohio residents in the 2012 survey.

The findings of the study were printed in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. The study was led by Rachel Tumin, a survey and population health analyst manager at the Ohio Colleges of Medicine Government Resource Center, and Sarah Anderson, an associate professor of epidemiology in Ohio State's College of Public Health.

Tumin said that it is not how often a person is eating family meals as the most important thing, but rather what he or she is doing during the time of eating matters more. Tumin further said that this emphasizes the significance of what is going on during those meals and whether there are chances to turn the TV off or do more on the preparation of food, as noted by UPI.

In the study, the researchers examined the 13,000 adults, who had eaten at least one family meal in the past week. They evaluated the link between obesity and family meal patterns and practices using the logistic regression models. They also used the body mass index (BMI) of at least 30 as obese based on the participant's height and weight.

The results showed that more than half of the participants had family meals on most days of the week. About 13 percent of them had family meals on a few days and 35 percent had them on some days. The team also discovered that one-third of them were obese and around a third watched TV or videos during meal times. On the other hand, 36 percent of the participants did not watch TV or videos during meal time and 62 percent of them said that their meals were home-cooked.

"Obesity was as common in adults who ate family meals 1 or 2 days a week as it was in those who ate family meals every day," Anderson said. Meanwhile, people who did not watch TV or videos during meal time would less likely to be obese by 37 percent than those who always watch TV or videos. There was also a reduced risk of obesity to those who had home-cooked meals and did not watch TV or videos, according to Medical News Today.