CAUTION: Living is Hazardous to Your Health!

Over the years there have been many studies that says this or that is hazardous to your health. & many of them have been valid, esp when it comes to things like smoking or overeating. But, at 1 point it seemed like so many things were being declared hazardous that it was reaching the point where you couldn't do anything. I finally decided to start using the line "Living can kill you!" or "Living can be hazardous to your health!" to describe the insanity that virtually everything is turning out to be harmful.

Well, they have come up with another study that I put in that catagory. British psychologist Dr. Aric Sigman has written a report that can be summed up thus: Letting children watch TV can cause everything from "short-sightedness and obesity to premature puberty and autism." This according to a report entitled Children's TV Linked To Cancer, Autism, Dementia on Radar News Network.

Lets see, I grew up watching a fair amount of TV as did a lot of my friends. OK, I am near sighted & over weight. But I doubt if the 2 are directly linked. I also spent a lot of time reading & listenning to the radio rather than getting out as much as I should. They probably contributed as much to my weight problem as did watching TV. According to Dr Sigman "viewing television may be a bigger factor in causing obesity than diet or exercise." I tend to disagree. I bet the weight problem is more likely due to the fact that I overate, wasn't as active as I should have been & being Italian have a tendancy towards that problem. Many of my friends who watched as much TV as I did didn't have these problems, or the others.

The truth is, excess is not good no matter what. I agree with the idea that parents should put some limits on the amount of TV that their children watch. & I definitely approve of his suggestion that it be "good quality programming". Esp given the dearth of it that there so often seems to be. Too often parents have used TV as a cheap babysitter to abdicate their responsibilities of spending time with their children. But, I suspect that he is going a bit to far in making TV the ultimate villian for the 15 or so things listed. It may not of helped, but I doubt if TV is the root cause he makes it ou to be.

In fact I can't help but flashback to the scene in Sleeper where Woody Allen's character Miles Monroe explains what he sold in his health food store:

Dr. Melik: [puzzling over list of items sold at Miles' old health-food store] ... wheat germ, organic honey and... tiger's milk.

Dr. Aragon: Oh, yes. Those are the charmed substances that some years ago were thought to contain life-preserving properties.

Dr. Melik: You mean there was no deep fat? No steak or cream pies or... hot fudge?

Dr. Aragon: [chuckling] Those were thought to be unhealthy... precisely the opposite of what we now know to be true.

Dr. Melik: Incredible!

I'll stick with the motto: "All things in moderation, including moderation."