A new study has found the world’s increasing obesity crisis could be due to a modern-day habit that most people are guilty of doing every night.
The study, published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, found that eating dinner in front of the television is a contributing factor in weight gain.
Researchers from Ohio, United States examined adults who ate their family meals in front of television each night.
They found that people who never watched television during family meals were 37 percent less likely to be obese compared with adults who always watched TV.
They also looked closely at the number of times people were sitting down for family meals every week and found it wasn’t the meals that were contributing to the obesity factor, but the time in front of the screen.
The study’s lead author Rachel Tumin said the findings should encourage people to turn off the television at dinner time and focus solely on their food instead.
“How often you are eating family meals may not be the most important thing. It could be that what you are doing during these meals matters more,” she told Medical News Today.
“This highlights the importance of thinking critically about what is going on during those meals, and whether there might be opportunities to turn the TV off or do more of your own food preparation.”