I know what you're thinking. Even if you don't watch TV you're going to die. We're all going to die. Happy New Year!

But a recent study by the Baker IDI Heart and Disease Institute and published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association (which is my second favorite magazine after Cat Fancy) says that the more we watch TV, the greater our risk of dying from all sorts of things. Every hour that we spend in front of the tube increases cardiovascular diseases risk by 18% and cancer by 9%. Overall it's an 11% increase. And these increases are across the board and not affected by heart problems, disease or any other conditions you might already have.

Another year, another TV watching marathon.

Jeff Miller, a businessman from Illinois, won his third (yup, third) Ultimate Couch Potato title at ESPN Zone. Miller watched TV for three straight days, beating three other TV fans who couldn't stay up for that long. Not only if this the third straight time that Miller has won the title, he broke the Guinness World Record for watching television. He also won $1000 for a new TV, a recliner, a year of cable, $1000 to spend at ESPN Zone, and a trophy shaped like a potato. He also gets to sleep for a few hours if he wants to.

Miller was only allowed to go to the bathroom every eight hours. I'm not sure if I could do that, especially if I'm drinking and/or eating during the three days. I think that would be harder than the staying up part. I wonder if they let you wear an adult diaper?

Yup, it's that time of year again, the week when we're supposed to shut off our TVs (and computers, I assume) and go outside and get some fresh air, maybe eat a salad.

I mention this every year, and it has gotten to the point where it would be ridiculous to give the opposing viewpoints yet again (but you can read them here and here). Suffice to say, we think you should leave your TV on this week (and in September - there's a TV Turn-Off Week then, too - when the new fall season starts!). If you don't, you're going to miss some cool stuff.

It's official: reading books gives your children asthma.

That's the only conclusion I can come to after reading this study that says that children between the ages of three and eight who watch two hours of television a day or more are at a higher risk to develop asthma. Now, they're not saying that the actual habit of watching television gives you asthma, they're saying that children who sit around and don't go outside to play and lead an active lifestyle are more at risk.

So wait a second, if it's not the act of watching TV that does this, doesn't that mean that anything that doesn't have you moving would cause asthma, including reading classic novels and encyclopedias on your bed? Or sleeping? Or playing a board game with your mom?

Yup, it looks like Americans are watching more TV than ever. Which must really tick off the makers of My Own Worst Enemy, The Ex-List, and Dirty Sexy Money.

How much is more than ever? The average American - Joe TV, if you will - watches 142 hours a television a month, according to a new study from Nielsen Media. That's four or five hours a day for each of us (and if that number is accurate, then I watch about 320 hours of TV a month). As for watching shows at another time, whether via DVRs or online, that's up 50% from last year. We Americans love our TV, though as The L.A. Times says maybe more people were watching this year because of the election and The Olympics.

Craig Harper has written an interesting article about how to lose weight while watching TV. We are becoming a more sedentary society; Harper says that within a few years some of us will have movement patterns and daily activity levels of an oak tree. In the words of Chris from So You Think You Can Dance, "I'm not a tree." Chris isn't a tree. And you don't have to be one either--even though this fitness guru says so.

Here's how not to be a tree in a few years. The average American spends three hours a day watching TV (mostly in the evening). Harper says that roughly forty-five minutes of that block is spent watching commercials. And who wants to watch those? Most commercials suck. So, during each commercial break, you get up and do some step-ups (stepping up and down off a box, platform, step).

Harper even gets into the nitty-gritty math stuff. I don't speak math, but basically he says that a 150 lbs. person can potentially lose 48 lbs. in a year. I'm no expert but I think "potential" is the operative word in that sentence. Do you still get to eat the whole year? Still, Harper does put a good idea out there. Use your commercial time wisely.

That's the finding of a researcher in Japan. He also discovered that surfing the web late at night can have an effect on your sleep habits. BREAKING NEWS!

OK, I'm being a little sarcastic here, but it seems like such an obvious conclusion that I'm sure you and I thought this was true even before any study was released.

I always have to chuckle a little bit when I see articles like this (and we see a couple of them every single year) that tell us how many hours a day we watch television. Because while the "average American" watches 4 1/2 hours of a television a day (or 1555 hours a year), I must spend at least double that, around 10 hours a day.

The other statistics don't really surprise me though. The Census Bureau says we spend around 10 hours total a day watching TV, listening to the radio, listening to music, surfing the web, and reading magazines and newspapers. Now, I think all of those things are just a part of everyone's day and there's really nothing surprising about it. That's a lot of territory, and the rest of the time of course has to be done eating, commuting, working, talking on the phone, and sleeping.

How many hours a day do you spend watching television?

[via TV Newser]