HHS HealthBeat (September 15, 2006)

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I'm Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Watching TV keeps many of us on our couches and off our feet. And scientists can tell – literally step by step – how much activity we give up when we sit down.

Gary Bennett of Harvard-affiliated Dana-Farber Cancer Institute measured the effect of TV on walking in people in low-income housing.

His study in the American Journal of Public Health was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

"Among our entire sample, each hour of television watching was associated with about 140 fewer steps per day." (six seconds)

Bennett says people could watch two hours or less of TV instead of America's typical four, making time for walks and other daily living activities. And maybe they could work up to a healthy 10,000 steps a day.

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.