*News flash: Television networks disband - *America turns off TV, gets healthy

If this imaginary headline appeared in newspapers across America, I can imagine scores of people taking to the streets to riot and protest the end of life as we know it. Some might even shoot themselves with the miserable thought of having to find alternate means of entertainment; possibly even being forced to talk to family members during dinner.

But what if our televisions provided us with nothing more than fuzzy, empty screens? No more networks, no sports or reality TV shows, no jaded news and, most of all, no commercials? Would the economy collapse without commercialized television?

I think this is a legitimate question to ask. People always wonder what will happen to the economy when we run out of oil. Will the entire auto industry and its subsidies bottom out? Probably not, because they'll move on to new forms of transportation that don't use gasoline before their empires went to hell.

Television has become man's new best friend and something most people can't live without. Unlike oil, it seems to be an unending resource, that is, unless commercial advertising drops off the face of the earth.

Although most television stations broadcast nothing but mind-numbing chatter and, in my opinion, dumb down society, commercials are doing more damage to the United States and the world than most people can imagine, especially to our health, both mentally and physically.

We are brainwashed into drinking Pepsi, purchasing insurance from Geico and trying new fast food value meals that contain 1,400 calories per serving, while also drowning small businesses from the market who can't afford a $30 million commercial on Super Bowl Sunday.

Television, like our dependency on oil, is something that needs to change before it's too late. 

On average, including television, newspapers, radio, billboards and the Internet, the average American sees 247 advertisements a day, according to Consumerreports.com.

Most advertisements, according to the same report, are seen on television.

The philosophical question involved here is whether or not we would still buy all the products pitched to us on television.

If fast food chains stopped reminding us about new, unhealthy menu items made of the same three ingredients in a different sequence, would we still desire to eat them? Or better yet, would we return to more traditional diets?

According to Food Consumption, Prices and Expenditures for the United States Department of Agriculture, in the 1890s, the average American consumed 12 pounds of sugar per year. By 1975, after the overwhelming success of the refined-food industry, the 12 pounds had jumped to a world-leading 118 pounds per year.

At some point, big businesses began feeding us enough sugar in one year to last 50 lifetimes and pushed their products largely through television advertising and overwhelmingly toward children.

"Get em' hooked while their young," seemed to be a standard motto. What Generation X kid can't remember begging for a Happy Meals just to get the cheap plastic toy or the cereal box with a cartoon on it that contained marshmallows and sugar flakes.

The fact is, the manufacturers of the products that are killing us are spending the most money to get them in front of our eyes.

According to a study at Washington State University, companies spend top dollars on advertising junk food while health foods get little to no play. This is obviously based on profits and the price of advertising on television.

Pepsi, made of 41 grams of sugar (or should I say corn syrup), spends $2.1 billion a year on marketing (about one-fifth of their budget); McDonalds, $1.2 billion and Coca-Cola $895 million.

According to the same study, Americans spent $118 billion on fast food in 2005 and consumed 56 gallons of soda per person which is 600 12-once cans in one year.

Even more, the average child sees 10,000 food advertisements per year and most are junk and fast food commercials with only two percent showing fruits, vegetables or beans.

The United States Department of Health indicates 14 percent of children in the United States are now seriously overweight. A total of 60 percent of overweight children between the ages of five and 10-years-old already have at least one risk factor for heart disease, including elevated blood cholesterol, high blood pressure and Type 2 Diabetes.

In 2006, after being concerned about a steady diet of TV ads affecting children's weight, the Federal Communications Commission began a study to analyze links between children's television viewing habits, the ads they see and the rise of childhood obesity.

"Small children can't weed out the marketing messages from their favorite shows," FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said at a news conference in 2006. "Especially when the marketing campaigns feature favorite TV characters like SpongeBob or Scooby-Doo."

Martin cited reports showing the average child watches two to four hours of TV per day and views about 40,000 TV ads every year, most of them for cereal, candy, toys and fast food.

Kansas Senator Sam Brownback said he supports a change in industry standards and the FCC's initiative.

"Judging by the sheer volume of media and advertising that children consume on a daily basis, and given alarming trends in childhood obesity, we're facing a public health problem that will only get worse unless we take action," he said.

It's estimated companies spend $15 billion a year advertising to children alone.

While some groups want a complete ban on junk food marketing, the FCC is looking to find common ground instead creating regulations.

Brownback said a number of food companies have indicated an interest in working with the government to help address the issue, though none attended the press conference on held by the FCC in 2006.

The bottom line is, Americans are not only addicted to TV, but also sugar, and that means big bucks for too many powerful people.

But in the end, there is one simple solution to this problem and it comes down to parents and individual decisions.

TV's can be turned off (or even smashed) and we can choose to return to the culinary arts and use our kitchens for storing healthy food instead of packets of ketchup and Taco Bell hot sauce.

It is the consumer that makes individual businesses money. I have been eating organic food for more than 10 years and in the beginning it was nearly impossible to find a good selection of products and it was never mentioned in a commercial. Today, every major grocery store has at least one section dedicated to organic foods and it seems America is waking up from its half-century sugar binge.

The hope for the future is that the next generation of consumers will make purchases, including food they bring home to feed their families, based on education and not on which companies have the most money to spend on advertising during their favorite television program.