Luis Moreno, Full Professor of Methodology of research of the University of Zaragoza, affirmed at the University of Navarra that"around 30% of Spanish children in Education are overweight, and of them a third are obese". These data, as the expert warned during the XVI meeting of the Spanish Society of Nutrition held at the School of Pharmacy, respond "to the multitude of sedentary behaviors that children can adopt and that, in some occasions, they even do at the same time".

These behaviors are associated with the current access to technologies since childhood:"An adolescent is able to watch TV, have a laptop on his lap, be connected to mobile anduse all three at the same time," said Moreno.

Although the transcendence of these behaviors is still little studied, the expert continued, it is known that"the most harmful behavior for health is watching television because it is the most passive: you only receive information, which is not always the most appropriate from the point of view of nutrition or food, or even lifestyles; and while you do not do any activity. In addition, this allows you to consume foods that are not usually the most beneficial either."

Watching TV as a family

According to Professor Moreno, childhood overweight and obesity "are more influenced by a sedentary lifestyle than by the changes in eating patterns that have occurred in recent years"."It is no longer so much the time devoted to a sedentary activity that matters, but rather the multitude of possibilities offered by technology associated with these passive behaviors," continued the expert.

One of the main determinants that favor overweight and obesity is having television in the bedroom (between 30 and 40% of European adolescents have it). Avoiding this is fundamental, so Moreno recommended"watching little television and in the family, as well as doing a lot of physical activity, also in the family".