While obesity is on the verge of passing smoking as the largest preventable cause of death, Homer Simpson continues to promote an unhealthy diet consisting primarily of beer and doughnuts.
Researchers at the University wanted to examine how Homer and other characters in the television show "The Simpsons" casually promote an unsafe diet, among other things.
A study performed at Cook College analyzed the popular cartoon to identify how the show deals with health issues.
Researchers are worried television constantly exposes people to negative nutritional messages. "A major concern is the inadequate, inaccurate and/or questionable content of health messages embedded in television programs," wrote head researcher Carol Byrd-Bredbenner on the report.
The study examined 63 random episodes for occurrences of what researchers termed "health-related messages." The study defined an HRM as "any scene containing an action involving mental or physical health, medical treatments, substance use, fitness/exercise, sex, body image or nutrition/food." These occurrences were all classified as either positive/recommended behavior, negative/not recommended behavior or neutral.
When issues such as smoking, drug use, disease risk factors or alcohol consumption came up, the great majority of the messages were found to be negative. In addition, beer was the most popular item among characters, representing 39 percent of all foods consumed on the show. Researchers said these trends could subconsciously affect viewers, possibly legitimizing an unhealthy diet.
Homer Simpson was singled out by Byrd-Bredbenner as the character guilty of the most infractions. He alone was responsible for 17 percent of the verbal references of food and 21 percent of all instances of food being consumed.
Homer's habits are dangerously unhealthy, and it appears the creators of "The Simpsons" intend to present Homer as an unattractive character, the report stated.
However, Guy Baehr, the associate director of the Journalism Resource Institute said although the effect these messages have on viewers could be disputed, people should put the messages in context. "You have to remember 'The Simpsons' is a comedy show," Baehr said. "There could be a lot of irony or humor involved."
"He's not a character that people would want to imitate, but he's a character people might identify with," he said.
The researchers expressed special concern about the show's effect on children and young adults. Justin Villano, a Cook College junior, said when children choose what to eat, other influences would take precedent over a cartoon show. "We should hope that parents have a bigger effect on kids than the cartoons they are watching."
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