“Our main finding is that it seems that if you watch food television and then actually cook the recipes that you see, you’re at risk for having a higher BMI [body mass index],” says study author Lizzy Pope, who’s a researcher in nutrition and food science at the University of Vermont.
Pope, along with colleagues at Cornell University, surveyed about 500 women in their 20s and 30s. The researchers asked a range of questions about the women’s cooking habits. And they documented the women’s weight and height to calculate their BMIs.
“In terms of weight, those who watched cooking shows and cooked frequently from scratch had a mean weight of 164 lbs,” according to the paper. By comparison, women who watched the shows but didn’t cook much from scratch weighed, on average, about 153 lbs.
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