Cut Off The TV & Cut Your Diabetes Risk

But people engaging in lifestyle changes ended up reducing their TV time by 22 minutes a day over the course of the study. By comparison, people taking metformin reduced their TV watching by just 3 minutes a day, and those following no plan at all watched 8 minutes fewer per day.

The researchers then investigated the impact of sedentary behavior over time on diabetes incidence. For participants in all three groups, the risk of developing diabetes increased approximately 3.4 percent for each hour spent watching TV, after the researchers adjusted for other variables.

In addition to the impact on metabolism, sitting for long periods in front of the TV also can promote overeating, noted David Marrero, president of health care and education for the American Diabetes Association.

“I know when I’m sitting around watching TV, I’m more likely to graze and eat crappy food,” Marrero said. “When people are watching passively, there’s a tendency to snack. When’s the last time you measured out a portion size of potato chips and ate it in front of the television?”

This increased risk from TV watching might not apply to healthy people who are not at high risk for diabetes, Kriska and Rockette-Wagner added.

They noted that the Diabetes Prevention Program specifically focused on people who were overweight and prediabetic.

“Not everyone in the general population would be at high risk,” the researchers said. “We would hypothesize that the risk increase from TV watching may be lower in those not at high risk for diabetes, but obviously could not test that in our study population.”

More information

Visit the U.S. Department of Labor for more on Americans’ television viewing habits.