Dr. Hanna Margeirsdottir of the University of Oslo is studying children with Type 1 diabetes. This is the type of diabetes where the body does not produce insulin, and people need to take insulin daily.
The study involved 538 children with an average age of 13. In Norway, about 25,000 people have Type 1 diabetes. In the United States, there are 3 million with the condition and about 30 million worldwide. The study evaluated results of a routine test that measured average blood-sugar control over three months. There was a continuous increase in the level of blood sugar with every hour of TV watched, rising to the highest level for those who watched at least four hours daily.It's unclear whether it is because of snacking while eating, or because kids are sedentary instead of being active, or if there are other lifestyle factors involved with households' relationship to TV viewing, or even if there is any influence from the type of ads being displayed, but the bottom line is: increased TV time is connected to increased blood sugar, which is unhealthy.