'Scooby Doo' named 'healthiest cartoon'

Scooby Doo has been named as the healthiest cartoon, based on the amount of physical activity undertaken by the character.

According to a survey published by the Department of Health, the stars of the long-running television series, took almost half of the places in the list of the most active individual characters, ahead of energetic animals such as Tom and Jerry and Wile E Coyote.

The consultants, who made the decision, drew up the league tables by watching 200 hours of children’s television, featuring 20 most popular programmes, noting how much physical activity was shown.

“Each character was rated on their activity levels and received marks for good behaviours such as walking short journeys and playing sport,” the Telegraph quoted the Department of Health as saying.

Top 20 children’s programmes based on the level of physical activity are:

1.    Scooby Doo
2.    Shaun the Sheep
3.    Lazy Town
4.    Peppa Pig
5.    Bob The Builder
6.    Tom and Jerry
7.    Dora the Explorer
8.    Looney Tunes
9.    SpongeBob Squarepants
10.    In the Night Garden
11.    Ben 10
12.    The Simpsons
13.    Phineas and Ferb
14.    The Sarah Jane Adventures
15.    Tracey Beaker
16.    Postman Pat
17.    iCarly
18.    Horrid Henry
19.    Garfield
20.    Charlie and Lola