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The child three hours a day on the smartphone?

This is what can happen

The kids on the smartphone or computer screen how many hours a day?

New research has found that it can hurt their daily diet and cause them to eat much less fruits and vegetables and more junk food

Tags

• Teens

• Smartphone

• obesity

• Junk food

• Sugary drinks

• diet

Walla!

health

Friday, 18 June 2021, 06:37 Updated: 07:03

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This is a pretty familiar picture in every home in Israel - where there is a teenage boy or girl - there is a smartphone stuck in the nose.

If you thought the effect of this was negligible or mainly harms their vertebrae or sleep, we have news for you.

A new study has found that teens who surf the smartphone for more than three hours a day also tend to eat more junk food and less vegetables and fruits.

Surprised?

Researchers from the University of Korea who presented their findings at the Nutrition 2021 Live Online conference found that if teens spend more than three hours a day on their phones, they are also more likely to be overweight or obese.

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To the full article

It is estimated that the average person in the U.S. spends nearly four hours a day on a smartphone, and that figure only increases every year. The researchers analyzed a representative sample of more than 53,000 Korean adolescents ages 12 to 18 during this study.

Girl eating and looking at smartphone (Photo: ShutterStock)

After considering variables like socioeconomic status, the team found that the more fruits and vegetables teens eat, the less time they spend on their phones.

However, the more adolescents stay glued to their screens, the more likely they are to skip breakfast and consume fast food and carbonated beverages throughout the day.

The results of the study specifically showed that teens who spend about five hours or more a day on their phones tend to report more consumption of sugary drinks, carbonated and non-carbonated beverages, fast food and chips, compared to those who spent less than two hours a day on their phones.

Even teens who spent more than three hours a day on a smartphone were at higher risk of being overweight or obese, the findings show.

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The team noted some important exceptions in using the phone. If teens used school-school phones, they tended to have better eating habits than those who used their devices to chat with their friends, play, entertain, and surf social media.

"While previous studies have shown that watching TV is an important factor in increasing the risk of obesity in children and adolescents, little is known about the effects of modern screen time such as using smartphones on diet and obesity," explained researcher Hannah Ho. "Our data suggest that both smartphone use time and content type may independently affect nutrition and obesity in adolescents."

The researchers add that using mobile phones all the time can lead to "uncontrollable" eating, insufficient sleep and underutilized use of time that does not include exercise.

"Today's adolescents are digital natives, who grew up in close contact with digital devices such as smartphones, and so they may be greatly affected by them," the researchers conclude.

"Efforts should be made to maximize the positive effects and minimize the negative effects of smartphone use on adolescent health."

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