In Brief

Video games aren't so bad

Television and video games are often blamed for tubbiness trends, particularly among American children. But University of Miami researchers say it's unfair to group these two forms of entertainment together.

The researchers studied the metabolic and physiologic responses of 21 boys, ages 7–10, as they played an action video game called Tekken 3 for 15 minutes. As the boys punched and kicked their way through the game's mock martial arts battles, their heart rates went up, on average, by 19%; their systolic blood pressure rose by a similar amount; and their breathing rates increased by 55%.