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It boggles my mind that people will not only watch other people live imaginary lives instead of living their own, they will shorten their own life in the process. Well, I guess if they weren't too focused on actually living it anyway, then it doesn't make much difference.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Does Watching Crime TV Make You Eat More?
That is the findings of several studies that found that thinking about one's own mortality caused the purchase and consumption of more food. As if you needed another reason to turn off the TV, it's literally killing you. Not only is it filling your head with negativity, taking up time that could be used for exercise, bombarding you with ads for poison disguised as food and inhibiting reading and social relationships, but it also contributes to what will soon be America's biggest health concern: obesity. Eating up to 25% more than the already gluttonous US diet, unless you're an ectomorph or you doing a LOT of exercise, means obesity is a forgone conclusion. If you're an ectomorph, you won't get fat, but you will still have many health risks.
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2 comments:
This study sounds extremely poorly designed. The control groups were give tasks of either 1. Writing about a trip to the dentist or 2. Thinking about a painful medical procedure. Both of those options are likely to make one eat less/ think about food less than normal out of nausea or the realization that junk food leads to cavities and heart attacks. This study should be repeated with control groups preforming tasks more varied and at least marginally positive.
Even if the findings are reproducible, at least note that the "scared" group bought more food of all kinds, not just junk. Perhaps they also exercised more and traveled more when they realized their mortalities - two much more rational out comes of than what was examined in this study.
It would be interesting to see more studies. Though, though correlation does not means causation, the amount of programing they are talking about has increasing for quite a while as has obesity.
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