Kids who watch too much TV are usually overweight, according to the American Medical Association. Kids often snack on junk food while watching TV. They are also influenced by commercials to consume unhealthy food. Also, they are not running, jumping, or doing activities that burn calories and increase metabolism. Obese kids, unless they change their habits, tend to be obese when they become adults. A recent study confirms this finding, suggesting that even just an hour of TV is associated with childhood obesity.
Obesity is becoming a growing problem for kids because they are watching cartoons that advertise unhealthy eating and they spend too much time being inactive in front of the TV. A child who watches cartoons frequently probably has a favorite character that he or she likes, now the danger comes in when that child’s favorite cartoon character starts doing risky things that are ultimately or immediately harmful to them. If a cartoon character starts eating unhealthy, the child who admires that character will want to eat whatever they saw the cartoon character eat, and the children will even beg and cry to their parents to get the food product that has their favorite characters picture on it.
Whether the food product is healthy or not their parents will end up buying it just to make their kids stop crying. Research shows that “children who consistently spend more than 4 hours per day watching TV are more likely to be overweight” (kidshealth.org). If there is an activity children might be doing that makes them active and on TV they have their favorite cartoon show on they will choose that cartoon show over playing and being active because the cartoons are designed to be entertaining and addictive to children. Most often children watch cartoons with a snack nearby and end up over eating and ultimately gain weight over a period of their childhood lives.