It is important to your future health to be highly skeptical of anything you are viewing on TV.  It is controlled by large corporate entities that frequently have motives that are not aligned with your long-term best interests.

If you do view TV it is helpful to ask what are they selling here, and who's selling it? That will help defend you against their clever strategies. However, most of the time it will fail because they employ some of the most brialliant marketing geniuses on the planet.

Clearly the best option is to not watch it at all. We will have a story in Thursday's newsletter about a family that did just that.

Many sources cite that the average American watches three to four hours of TV per day, but I personally don't know anyone who would ever admit it. However, that's nearly a month's worth of TV time for me. More than 90 percent of my TV time is spent watching health videos I need to review.

If you really feel like you need to find out "what's going on in the world" for a few hours every day, consider this: do you really suppose the major stories that have dominated headlines and TV news have been "what is going on in the world?"

What is the purpose of news?

To inform the public?

Hardly.

The primary purpose of news is to keep you in a state of fear and uncertainty so that you'll watch again tomorrow and be subjected to the same advertising.

The greatest argument for limiting your family time in front of a television: The completely adverse effect it can have on your child's health and, specifically, preventing the spread of childhood obesity. TV will: 

• Change your child's views and food choices
• Make your kids fat
• Make your kids more materialistic
• Cause your children to go into more debt as adults
• Cause your children to be more aggressive
• Lead to smoking
• Increase your child's risk of becoming seriously injured

Another effect is an increased susceptibility to reliance on drugs. How is that? Well, did you know that the United States and New Zealand are the ONLY industrialized countries in the world that allow direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising of prescription drugs? 

I have compiled 20 practical alternatives to TV for you to consider. Engaging in activities that exercise the body and the mind will be better for your children's health -- and for your own.