Lose Weight: How TV Viewing May Help
Believe it or not, some TV viewing may actually be good for your health, including if you want to lose weight.
This is especially true for men.
A new study by University of Southern California researchers looked at the effect of health messages in entertainment TV.
They focused on a three-episode story arc on the NBC primetime drama, ER. The storyline dealt with teenage obesity, hypertension and eating habits.
The episodes aired from April 29 to May 13, 2004.
In the story, an African-American teenager was diagnosed with high blood pressure during an ER visit. He was advised to get more exercise and to eat more fruits and vegetables.
According to the researchers, ER viewers were 65% more likely to report a positive change in their health behavior. Their nutrition knowledge was also about 5% higher than non-viewers.
The effects were greater for men than for women.
The researchers believe this occurred because the men may have started with a lower level of nutritional and health information.
Although the total impact was small, the study shows that entertainment TV can be an effective means of communicating health messages.
Since people who watch a lot of TV are more at risk for being overweight or obese, the researchers thought TV would be a good way to help spread health and weight loss information.
They also believe that public health experts should participate in creating the health messages that are shown to viewers.
I think this is a good idea within limits.
As any good fiction writer knows, there’s a saying about cramming messages into fiction: “If you want to send a message, call Western Union.”
Translation: tell a good story first. If there’s a message that comes out of it naturally, great. But if TV writers start to force their episodes to convey health messages, they may ruin their shows and their viewers may tune out.
Then who will hear the health messages?
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