Popular television soap operas like Coronation Street and East Enders are being urged to show their cast drinking water more often and less alcohol and soft drinks.
According to the National Hydration Council (NHC), an analysis of around 3,000 minutes of national television showed that only around 1 in 20 drinks that characters drank are water, while 33% are alcoholic beverages. Around 50% are hot drinks and 7% carbonated drinks.
According to Emma Kenny, media psychologist, the UK is facing a growing obesity problem, and television programmers need to use their influence to get people to drink more water for a healthier lifestyle.
Kenny also said, †I hope that the findings of this report will prove both informative and shocking to the reader in equal measure, and open his or her eyes to the current, unacceptable state of affairs regarding the representation of healthy hydration in some of the nation’s most popular television programmes.”
The NHC researched British-made dramas, sitcoms and soap operas set in the present day on BBC1, BBC2, ITV1, Channel 4 and Channel 5, as well as The Archers on Radio 4 and found that over a period of a fortnight, they all dedicated approximately 14% of the time to drinks; Hollyoaks only gave drinks 6% of screen time.
According to the report, “On all the soap operas monitored water accounted for less than 10% of the screen time devoted to drinks. The two BBC soap operas (EastEnders and Doctors) did, however, record slightly higher percentages at 9% and 8% respectively compared with Coronation Street, Emmerdale and Hollyoaks.”
Coronation Street and Emmerdale favoured beer as the most popular alcoholic drink, while the characters in EastEnders referred wine. Doctors also preferred wine as their drink of choice, although GPs more often than not preferred to drink water.
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