Computers make you fat

She may be on to something. I've worked at a large Midwestern-US university for over a decade and I swear to God these kids get dumber every year. By way of compensation, they appear to be "evolving" into a group mind, since they can't take six steps without calling or "texting" someone on their goddamn cell phones. (I use quotes around "texting" to demonstrate that I am an old fart at 39.)
Man, I could go on and on about this, but I have to go wind the Victrola.

Kids definitely still need to firmly learn to add and subtract (and divide and multiply, not talking playground) before they use calculators.

And I think we need to be very careful about the quantity and quality of time kids spend on the computer - endless facebook or GTA isn't a good way to condition young minds.

Basically, it's up to parents to actually *raise* their kids, and not just have them and then let TV/computer be the babysitter. Or else increase the hours of compulsory schooling by trained teachers .... and the teachers need to improve a LOT in quality too!

Mind you, I'd get away from the computer if I could cuddle up to Baroness Greenfield !!! She's a lot older than 39, but *such* a total blonde hottie!

I've actually lost weight the more I use a computer. I've lost about 32lbs since Jan working a 60 hour week. But then again, it might be since I work on the second floor and I use the stairs.

Nick,

You are useless. You write "stunningly slim Baroness Susan Greenfield." and then don't provide a photo.

,dave

I love it how people latch on to a single component and think they have uncovered some mystery to life.

Before computers we very popular we had TV...so computers are not the main issue here...but you say, "it's the same thing"...so let's go on.

We have more junkfoods these days than ever before. Cheap foods with no nutritional value what so ever. To make things worse people do not want to eat healthy foods. Somehow "eating your greens" is a burden.
Exercise! remember that? How many kids today like to exercise?
Is it children's fault that they do not exercise?
Many times you hear expressions like "The apple does not fall far from the tree." and "Like mother like daughter".
Are you a couch potato parent complaining about kids inactivity?

What about the media? it promotes glossy magazines of slim women, at the same time we have huge adverts for fizzy drinks...mixed messages, be slim, eat junk!
How about commercials for slimming products? all of a sudden it's better to take pills, some magic shake & use all these costly gadgets to become slim...whatever happen to sweating? you know, people sweat, when they exert themselves, it's not gross its normal, it's healthy!
What about all these "it's healthy for you yogurts"? they tell you all about their helpful bacteria (which has not actually been proven to help in the way they claim), yet these contain lots of sugars, or salt...what about the low fat campaign? people now believe that products with lots of fat can make them fat! We now have products that are completely crap. They have low fat, low cholesterol, low sugar & great taste? you think eating that stuff is healthy??

How about nutritionists? did you know anyone can call themselves a "nutritionist"? it's legal, like calling yourself a "psychic".

Please, avoid these people like the plague. Obesity is on the rise for more reasons than just computers. The notion that there is just a single factor is borderline silly.

Once again, the older generation takes exception to the younger generation...these days a normal kid is a kid that frags his mates online via computer. If he's fat, who's fault is that? people want to blame someone. Want to blame? look in the mirror, start there.

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Pay Is About 6 Billion+11Billionplus bit from State+1b+2b+++. Oh,Boy.Its' COMPUTER time.

So what's the next startling news, TV makes you fat? Noooooo, not possible!

and i'll tell you all sorts of things that everybody already knows....

sweat = good, sit = bad, drugs = bad, tv = not real, internet = time vacuum, linux=time vacuum, windows = slavery, macos = jedi mind trick

So fattening food doesn't make you fat?

Can you explain exactly how a nutritionist is like a psychic?

Haha, wtf, nutritionists are like psychics? Well, I'm a nutritionist, and if knowing how to maintain my RDA of macronutrients (fats, proteins, carbs) based on a 2500 calorie diet, thus -- in conjunction with daily exercise -- promoting 8% body fat and a 290lbs bench press/5 minute mile makes me as fraudulent as a claimed psychic, well then, either the dictionary needs to revise how it defines fraudulent, or you are just a complete idiot.

based entirely on surmise and conjecture with a non empirical basis for drawing out cause and effect

in other words she is stereotyping gamers negatively based on her own mores and ideals and confounding all the ills of modern life in one scape goat

where is the evidence for a link between obesity and game play ?

where are control studies which compare gaming to reading books or watching TV ?

where is the comparative study testing the effects of different types of game on brain activity, such as role playing, strategy, shoot'em ups, driving, flying, sudoku & other puzzles? these are very different kinds of experience

surely advertising is a much more prevalent cause of unrealistic expectations in life? advertisers abuse psychological science persistently, without benevolence and with widespread detrimental effects on social behaviour! yet noone complains because of the money involved, I wonder how much their profits are costing the rest of us?

contemporary TV is highly unrealistic and disjointed. "pop" documentaries I single out as these should be an education for future scientists and are surely the worst offenders for destabilising attention spans among modern media productions.

if you want to point the finger at causes of psychological damage to the contemporary psyche this is the direction people should be looking in, the snobbery of commissioning editors resulting in insultingly patronising dumbed down standards and the unscrupulous devices of disingenuous advertisers.

getting into interactive entertainments is for many people just a way of getting away from all of that brain washing rubbish and represents a far more active and social form of entertainment than TV

obesity is due to inactivity on the one hand and sugar addiction, that is because food manufacturers play the same game of addicting their customers using sugar, what makes you fat is eating excess calories and in particular eating sugar and fat at the same time

gaming is not any more fattening than using the telephone, its just a question of whether you are getting the exercise you need relative to the amount of food you eat or not

games do not make you too demoralised to care, that is the world we live in, games are where people seek respite, but even there our propensity for addiction is used against us.

Does turning the page give you all the exercise?

What about Wii Fit? Or the other active computer games?

Computers are not as bad as books, books are self only. Computers can be social and teach co-operation, leadership etc.

She has a point, but like everything else it's moderation. Too many fake expenses make our politicians look like the lowlife grubby cheats that most of them are!

A nutritionist can claim to be a nutritionist exactly like a person can claim to be a psychic.
See, you cannot claim to be a doctor, a GP without actually being one. That's fraud. But you can claim to be a nutritionist, a psychic, a quantum energy healer and all sorts of things!

To claim you are a nutritionist, and work as one, you need 0 qualifications.

Sure, some sensible people might want you to produce you 100 academic hours NVQ, but for the most part, it's not worth wiping your ass with.

So in that sense, they are like psychics. If you didn't notice, I did not claim they can tell the future by read palms.

And some of you pointed out that using the computer or watching TV makes you sit a lot...well so does writing...surely in the good old days there were plenty of writers...did it make them fat?
Because the article does not state the slim woman (without a picture) claims it's caused by 'inactivity'...
But anyways..

I can't use the link you left Dr.Drashek I got his error:

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I read somewhere (so it must be true :P) that the brain uses the most energy of all the organs in the body. Surely playing games stimulates the brain using a fair amount of energy. I'm even talking about "mindless" first person shooters too. You have to be on the ball, and processing lots of information (ammo, health, powerups, players nearby, aim) very fast if you want to be any good.

Sure you'll lose cardiovascular fitness sat down at a computer, and still probably die of a heart attack, but stop eating takeaways every meal and food made of crap and you'll be thin as a rake!

Incidentally, I'm an avid gamer, never eat anything with "healthy" on it, never eat ready meals or "convenience food" (stuff you stick in the oven, made from reformed bits of other things. Or jars of crap you add to meat - that ain't cooking), have a takeaway once every couple of weeks, take minimal exercise. I'm the right weight for my height.

Also the argument is flawed. No one (unless it's for shits and giggles) sets out to play a game to get their character killed. Certainly the option of respawning is there, thus repeating the mistake of getting shot for example, but the aim is to be alive as long as possible, no?

Silly person... Anything that involves burning very little energy is likely to make you fat. It's a simple case of calories in calories burnt.
You could eat under the recommended number of calories in a day and still end up fat just by staying in bed all day, or watching TV.
Me, I've been playing with computers since I was 11. I'm now 40. 6' tall and 12.5 stone (175lbs, 80kg, pick your favourite).
Then again I snowboard, ride motorbikes and I'm just starting to dabble with scuba.