News junkies get good news on the health front

Regular Yahoo readers, this study's for you:

"When used for information, TV, newspapers, and the Internet may have a positive impact on one's health."

Italian researchers collected data from 1,132 adult subjects, and analyzed their medical, health and lifestyle information while also tracking their mass-media consumption.

"In our study we paid attention to the capacity of people to get informed by using mass media, including the Internet and newspapers or magazines. We sought to see whether most informed people had better eating habits than those less exposed to information," said Marialaura Bonaccio, first author of the study.

The study's findings hardly came to the "TV is bad for you" conclusions we're used to reading about. Instead, the researchers discovered that "exposure to mass media information is significantly associated with greater adherence to both Mediterranean diet and Mediterranean-like eating pattern, an association that public health strategies should take into account."

"In particular, people…reported higher consumption of some key foods of the Mediterranean diet pyramid, such as fruits and fresh fish, and a lower consumption of less healthy food such as animal fats," researcher Americo Bonanni said.

The Atlantic acknowledges that the Mediterranean diet is considered "the healthiest eating model in the world."

Apparently keeping up with world events is more than just brain food — it dictates better eating habits at home, too.

Now researchers hope to use these findings to better communicate health — and combat inactivity and obesity — through mass media.

"The next step will be to evaluate the single sources of information and to study the changes that the internet is introducing in the way people, mainly the youngest, get informed on health topics," said Giovanni de Gaetano, the director of the Research Laboratories.

The study, "Mass Media Information and Adherence to Mediterranean Diet: Results From the Moli-sani Study" is published in the International Journal of Public Health.