Scientists have discovered that simple household steps could help tackle Britain’s burgeoning obesity timebomb - already draining the NHS of billions of pounds a year.
They claim to have uncovered a direct link between home-cooked family meals, watching TV and the risk of becoming overweight.
In the wide-ranging new study, a group of American researchers found that adults who do not watch TV while eating home-cooked meals with their family tended to have the lowest chances of becoming obese.
The findings, published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, suggest a strong link between obesity and watching television while eating.
Co-author Sarah Anderson, associate professor of epidemiology in Ohio State’s College of Public Health who jointly headed the research, explained: “Regardless of family meal frequency, obesity was less common when meals were eaten with the television off and when meals were cooked at home.”
Rachel Tumin, fellow lead author from the Ohio Colleges of Medicine Government Resource Center, added: “How often you are eating family meals may not be the most important thing.
"It could be that what you are doing during these meals matters more.
“This highlights the importance of thinking critically about what is going on during those meals, and whether there might be opportunities to turn the TV off or do more of your own food preparation.”
Being overweight increases the risk of several serious diseases including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and some types of cancer.
And experts have warned that Britain is already sitting on an obesity crisis. Latest UK figures show that some 67 per cent of men and 57 per cent of women are now either overweight or obese.
But the problem is also becoming acute in children.
In the UK, some 19.1 per cent of children aged 10-11 are now obese and a further 14.2 per cent are overweight.
Of children aged four-to-five, 9.1 per cent are obese and 12.8 per cent are overweight. A third of 10-to-11-year-olds and over a fifth of children aged four-to-five-are too heavy.
Such is the scale of the crisis that British taxpayers now spend more on treating obesity-related than on the police or fire service.
Around 40 per cent of the NHS’s workload is related to “modifiable health risk factors”, such as excessive alcohol consumption, smoking and lack of exercise.
NHS England says around £16 billion a year is spent on the direct medical costs of diabetes and conditions related to being overweight or obese.
Last night, anti-obesity groups in the UK welcomed the new research and explained how watching television while eating can directly affect our metabolisms.
Tam Fry, spokesman for the National Obesity Forum, explained: “People who stick themselves in front of the telly - either with a home-cooked or bought-in meal - are predominantly stuffing their faces and not talking to each other.
“The talking bit is key. Sitting down at table conversing with your family slows down the whole process of eating and allows time for your gut hormones to tell your brain when your are full.”
He added: “If, when on the couch, all you’re doing is listening to the box rather than thinking about your food, munching can become monotonous and mindless.
“Result: your hormones get swamped and you get fat.”
In the new study, researchers examined 13,000 adults who had eaten at least one family meal in the past week.
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They then analysed the link between obesity and family meal patterns and practices.
Adjusting for factors such as employment and marital status, educational level, ethnicity, and age, they found those who watched TV while eating were more likely to be obese.
Overall, over half of the participants said that they had family meals on most days of the week.
Additionally, 35 percent of the respondents reported having family meals on some days, and 13 percent said that they had them only on a few days.
Approximately a third of the participants were deemed obese.
But the researchers found those who were obese were more likely to watch TV or videos most of the time during these meals.
The type of food eaten was also important.
Those who ate home-cooked food and did not watch television while eating were less likely to be obese.
People who never watched TV or videos during family meals, however, were 37 percent less likely to be obese compared with adults who always watched TV.
This correlation was independent of family meal frequency.
The lowest risk of obesity was found among those whose family meals were both home-cooked and uninterrupted by TV or videos.
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