The Nation - News from May 6, 1985

A Harvard team of researchers reported a link between time spent in front of the television and the incidence of obesity and super-obesity in 6- to 11-year-old youngsters and teen-agers. The prevalence of obesity moved beyond the normal 15% in the group of grade school children when viewing amounted to two to five hours a day, said the report in Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. The incidence of obesity broke across the same 15% barrier among teen-agers who watched television three or more hours daily.