TV linked to fatness, not fitness

CHICAGO — Two new studies of obesity and high blood pressure among children produced advice that sounds a lot like the admonitions of a strict parent: Watch what you eat and quit watching so much TV.

Doctors studying a group of poor children in New York concluded that the children’s blood pressure depended in part on how much they weighed and exercised. Bad childhood habits could carry over to cause high blood pressure or heart disease when the children grow up, the researchers warned.

“There is evidence cardiovascular disease originates during childhood,” said the New York study, which is published in Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association.

A second study, a review of national data by the Harvard School of Public Health and Tufts New England Medical Center, found that the more television obese children and adolescents watch, the less likely they are to lose weight.

“Diet, exercise and restriction of television viewing and other sedentary activities all appear necessary to halt the fattening of America,” said that report, which was published in Wednesday’s edition of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.