
Adult Fast-Food Diets Tied to Too Much TV as Teen - vrs
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/30/AR2009013001835.html
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"The connection? Too much time spent watching ads for fast food"

Occam's razor suggests a simpler explanation: the kind of people who watch a
lot of TV also like fast food.

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martythemaniak
Any explanation must answer the "why". Their explanation says that they like
fast food _because_ they are exposed to more advertising, and we know
advertising tends to work pretty well.

You propose a mere correlation, but don't say why that correlation exists or
what causes it.

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electromagnetic
They're mistaking correlation with causation.

Here's the basic breakdown: Teenagers who spend 5 hours watching TV aren't
spending that time exercising... FACT.

You'd also be surprised that watching TV actually increases mental activity,
and I'd hazard a $100 bet that those kids are also playing video games and
such. All of these boost mental activity, which increases the brains demand
for glucose (even though it doesn't use up nearly as much as it makes us take
in).

Could it be that these teenagers are eating sugary foods because their body
demands it?

Those teenagers _not_ spending 5 hours a day watching TV are likely getting
much more exercise, which means they're spending less time using mental skills
and thus their brains are likely demanding less glucose than the non-
exercising teens.

Advertising works extremely well... when I'm trying to decide between PS3 and
Xbox, Pepsi and Coke (to some degree), etc. However I see _lots_ of
advertisements for pregnancy tests, pantyhose and lots of other products that
as a man I'm simply not interested in.

Edit: Occam's Razor stipulates the simplest explanation is often the correct
one. If I spent 5+ hours a day not exercising, I'm likely to be over weight.
In one week I managed to eat 4 big macs, 4 large fries, 4 large cokes and a
ton of other crap foods and I _lost_ weight. I work construction and despite
eating up to 4000 calories in a day I still lose weight, because I do a shit
load of exercise. I love junk food, however if I worked in an office I'd be
seriously overweight.

Well technically I am seriously overweight, however that's because the BMI is
a load of crap. Put it this way, overweight people are usually at risk of fast
pulse (tachycardia) and high blood pressure, my doctor was concerned because I
was bradycardic, my rest pulse got down to 47 at one point, however I'm good
because I wasn't suffering from lethargy, I mean working 12 hour days isn't
exactly the norm for someone with bradycardia. Thankfully I also have perfect
blood pressure even though I'm like a 31 on the BMI scale (morbidly obese).

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davi
_You'd also be surprised that watching TV actually increases mental activity_

I bet it increases it in the occipital cortex, where primary visual processing
is going on; this doesn't mean it's doing anything for these kids' cognitive
capabilities. Do you have a citation?

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vitaminj
There seems to be a preponderance of these types of tenuous studies in social
science. Somewhere, I'm certain there is a procedure for generic, shifty
research that looks something like this:

1\. Think up a hypothesis steeped in your own prejudices, eg. fat people watch
too much tv as kids

2\. Construct an experiment that doesn't control for any of the MILLIONS of
other possible causes

3\. Discover correlations in experimental results. Conclude that hypothesis is
true based on correlations.

4\. Issue a press release and make some tangential recommendations, eg. better
parenting is needed

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quoderat
Almost certainly high time preference rather than what the study claims to
show.

