Sneaking a scroll of your Insta-feed simultaneously throughout the day in between alternating between your emails and apps?
Between checking our social stats, sussing out the weather, stalking an ex, reading up on Mercury retrograde and scouring the internet for a dinner recipe, it seems near impossible to not somehow revert to our smartphone every few seconds.
But despite our fixation on wanting updates *like now*, it might be time to serious about our scrolling habits and slow down our phone checking a notch… or ten, with the latest science study finding a high daily usage, is associated with dramatically high odds of obesity.
In the latest study from Simón Bolívar University in Barranquilla in Colombia, researchers found those who spend five or more hours on their smartphones per day have a whopping 43 per cent higher risk of obesity.
Yep, that’s right, all that incessant checking not only leads to a higher likelihood of skipping the gym to snack, but those who are twice as likely to drink sugary beverages or eat fast food!
And, to make it worse, women are at higher risk, with the study finding compared to men, women were two times more likely to be overweight as a result of mindless smartphone staring.
Suddenly, scrolling the ‘gram’ never looked less sexy huh? But wait, there’s more! Aside from stacking on the pounds as a result of constant snacking, according to researchers the general chance of laziness—aka sedentary behaviour—is elevated, leading to serious health risks.
“Spending too much time in front of a smartphone is found to reduce physical activity and increase risk of premature death, diabetes, heart disease, different types of cancer, osteoarticular discomfort and musculoskeletal symptoms,” says Mirary Mantilla-Morrón, cardiac specialist at Simón Bolívar University.
And well, if science says so, it’s safe to say reverting to a social media and digital detox on the reg is hardly going to hurt… in fact it just might save you…and keep your bod on point too.
