I take you are not a big fan of science. Some links and quotes why TV
should be removed from a our house specially those who are trying to
lose weight.

Television, Diet and Advertising:
Why Watching TV Makes You Fat
by Ron Kaufman

"In 1999, an estimated 61 percent of U.S. adults were overweight,
along with 13 percent of children and adolescents. Only 3 percent of
all Americans meet at least four of the five federal Food Guide
Pyramid recommendations for the in- take of grains, fruits,
vegetables, dairy products, and meats. And less than one-third of
Americans meet the federal recommendations to engage in at least 30
minutes of moderate physical activity at least five days a week, while
40 percent of adults engage in no leisure-time physical activity at
all."
-- from "The Surgeon General's Call to Action to Prevent and Decrease
Overweight and Obesity," December 2001.

---------------------------------------------

Taming the TV

How you handle television viewing now may make a measurable difference
in how your child will look when she is in her mid-twenties. Kids who
watch more than two hours a day between the ages of 5 and 15 will be
different from their peers more than ten years later, whether or not
they still watch much TV. At age 26 they are more likely to be obese,
out of shape, and to already have high cholesterol, according to a
study by Robert Hancox and colleagues published in the July 17, 2004
Lancet. Childhood TV viewing affecting adult health? How might this
be? Three major ways have been proposed: by replacing hours spent in
active play, by slowing kids' metabolism (especially while they are
watching), and by changing kids' diets. Harvard's Drs. Ludwig and
Gortmaker, in an commentary in the Lancet, explain that of these
possibilities, the evidence is strongest for TV viewing harming health
through changing the diet. Junk foods may be more convenient to eat
while viewing, but the biggest impact on diet comes from the
commercials. Enormous amounts of money are spent enticing kids to eat
foods that are high in calories, fat, sugar, and chemicals - and low
in nutritional value. Each ad that kids see increases the chance that
they will want those products, ask their parents for those products,
and that their parents will buy those products. There is a direct line
between the number of food ads kids see and the number of calories
they eat (and how few fruits and vegetables they eat). And food habits
that start in childhood affect our tastes as adults. As parents we can
reclaim control of our family rooms. The typical American child spends
more than ten times more time watching TV than playing actively. Many
kids spend more time watching TV than spent in school and sports
combined. We can help our kids forever by helping them get at least an
hour of active play every day. We can help them forever by limiting
time spent in front of a screen. And perhaps most importantly, we can
help them by damming the flood of advertisements.

http://www.drgreene.org/body.cfm?id=21&action=detail&ref=18
---------------------------------

Turn Off the TV to Fight Fat - and ADHD

"Television commercials can affect your child's diet, and in turn, his
learning.

"According to the National Center for Health Statistics, more than one
in five children in the United States are overweight. The problem is
creeping downward on the age scale, threatening even preschoolers. At
the same time, type 2 diabetes - once called adult-onset diabetes - is
affecting children as young as 4, while attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, is also on the rise."

Reference:

http://www.turnoffyourtv.com/healtheducation/junkfood.html

ttp://www.tvturnoff.org/research.htm

http://content.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=1441

http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/04/09/ten-financial-reasons-to-turn-off-your
-television-and-ten-things-to-replace-it-with/

http://www.turnoffyourtv.com/healtheducation/junkfood.html

I guess it's easier to blame some outside influence... but I don't
believe in it. My parents didn't make me fat, my genetics didn't do
it, it was me, putting too much food in my mouth and too much of the
wrong kind of food for too many years. And I knew better, yes, even as
a child, I knew blame well I shouldn't be sneaking chips and stuff.

Applause!