Progress - Health Deceptions

Research -

In looking at the patterns across various kinds of television shows, the 'television world' is a relatively healthy one, in that everyone is thin. But those patterns leave us with a very misleading message. “Although most characters are not shown having particularly healthy habits (eating responsibility, regularly exercising, and getting medial checkups to prevent illnesses), most characters appear health, fit, and thin.” (Potter p.90) According to the American Obesity Association, 64.5% of Americans are overweight or obese. Here is where the misconception is; only 2% of women and 6% of men are shown to be heavy. When we see characters drinking and eating on TV, they do not gain weight and the food they eat is usually pretty unhealthy. As Potter states, fruit is accounted for only 4% to 5% of the episodes we see. It’s no wonder over half of the American population are obese! Audiences think that they can eat whatever they want and not gain weight based off of television shows like Gilmore Girls. This is just one of the health deceptions.

Source
Potter, James. “Media Literacy” Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, Inc. 2005.