Adult Fast-Food Diets Tied to Too Much TV as Teen • Hacker News Board

Re: Adult Fast-Food Diets Tied to Too Much TV as Teen

#11

Post by helveticaman » Mon, Feb 02, 2009, 1:22 AM UTC

pg wrote: post #2

"The connection? Too much time spent watching ads for fast food" Occam's razor suggests a simpler explanation: the kind of people who watch a lot of TV also like fast food.

Your brain uses very little energy while watching TV, as compared to studying physics. Keep in mind your brain can account for 20-30% of your caloric intake. So...the people that watch TV are saving calories (which to me is an appealing explanation of why people watch TV at all) and eat fast food for the same reason; they're poor.

Re: Adult Fast-Food Diets Tied to Too Much TV as Teen

#12

Post by vitaminj » Mon, Feb 02, 2009, 2:14 AM UTC

There seems to be a preponderance of these types of tenuous studies in social science. Somewhere, I'm certain there is a procedure for generic, shifty research that looks something like this:

1. Think up a hypothesis steeped in your own prejudices, eg. fat people watch too much tv as kids

2. Construct an experiment that doesn't control for any of the MILLIONS of other possible causes

3. Discover correlations in experimental results. Conclude that hypothesis is true based on correlations.

4. Issue a press release and make some tangential recommendations, eg. better parenting is needed

Re: Adult Fast-Food Diets Tied to Too Much TV as Teen

#13

Post by davi » Mon, Feb 02, 2009, 8:52 PM UTC

electromagnetic wrote: post #8

martythemaniak wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any explanation must answer the "why". Their explanation says that they like fast food because they are exposed to more advertising, and we know advertising tends to work pretty well. You propose a mere correlation, but don't say why that correlation exists or what causes it.

They're mistaking correlation with causation. Here's the basic breakdown: Teenagers who spend 5 hours watching TV aren't spending that time exercising... FACT. You'd also be surprised that watching TV actually increases mental activity, and I'd hazard a $100 bet that those kids are also playing video games and such. All of these boost mental activity, which increases the brains demand for glucose (even though it does…

You'd also be surprised that watching TV actually increases mental activity

I bet it increases it in the occipital cortex, where primary visual processing is going on; this doesn't mean it's doing anything for these kids' cognitive capabilities. Do you have a citation?