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The Internet, alcohol and sleep |
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From EurekAlert! - Breaking News: Girls moving through adolescence may experience unhealthy levels of weight gain, but the reasons for this are not always clear. A new study soon to be published in The Journal of Pediatrics analyzes the effect of Internet usage, sleep, and alcohol and coffee consumption on weight gain in adolescent girls. Dr. Catherine Berkey and colleagues from Harvard Medical School, Brigham & Women's Hospital, and Washington University led the Growing Up Today Study (GUTS), which surveyed more than 5000 girls between the ages of 14 and 21 years from all 50 states. They asked the girls to reflect on their weekly habits over the past year and report the following: 1) hours of sleep per night; 2) time spent on the Internet (excluding time for work or school); 3) number of alcoholic beverages consumed; and 4) number of coffee beverages consumed. The authors suggest that recreational Internet time, alcohol consumption, and lack of sleep may go unnoticed as causes of gradual weight gain. Dr. Berkey expressed concern that "these behaviors may promote gradual gains in body weight, but the girls and their parents may not understand why." To help maintain a healthy body weight, she encourages adolescent girls to replace recreational Internet time with more sleep, and avoid alcoholic beverage consumption.
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