Teens today cannot seem to live without the tablet, smartphone, video games, or laptops. The sad thing is, they are glued into these gadgets for hours on and are more likely to become obese, as a new study suggests.
One out of five U.S. teenagers spends more than five hours a day on gadgets like smartphones, tablets, computers and video games and 92 percent of teens go online daily, according to statistics. On the other hand, only 8 percent of kids watch more than five hours a day of TV.
Researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston suggest that teens who used screen devices for five or more hours daily have a high risk of obesity. These teens turned to be twice as likely to drink more sugary beverages and engage in too little physical activity, as reported in the study, published at WebMD.
Those teens who went under the research showed a 43 percent increased risk of obesity compared with kids who are not into smartphones or tablets at all. Nonetheless, the study did not prove that high use gadgets will cause obesity risk to rise.
The activity of using the devices itself is not the reason for gaining extra weight but the tendency to consume greater sugary drinks, fast foods, and then salty and sweet snacks. And the more the big kid's pause, not move, and just let their fingers and eyes work, especially when sitting, their body organs will fail to operate normally. A study even suggests that too much sitting can result to the shutting down of a fat-burning enzyme called lipase, which can even lead to stroke.
Parents should be cautious with their kids especially with the use of gadgets. Erica Kenney, research's lead author, said. These gadgets have a significant effect on the health of the young generation.
