Kids Needs Diet And Exercise To Avoid Obesity
It has been estimated that more than nine million kids are overweight, causing them to face potentially scary futures that could cause health care costs to spiral beyond control, according to a recent Reuters report.
If children don’t slim down by age 20, their life expectancy will drop by up to 20 years. An obese child is more susceptible than his peers to diabetes, heart disease and asthma. It could lead to sheer misery.
For this study, Dr. Ulf Ekelund of the MRC Epidemiology Unit in Cambridge, UK and his team looked at 1,862 children 9 to 10 years old, 23 percent of whom were overweight or obese. Their aim was to figure out the role of time spent in different activities and how this related to obesity.
Researchers used a "wristwatch-like device" which measured the amount and intensity of activity children got throughout the day. They were looking for associations between this activity and children’s waist size, amount of body fat, and body mass index (BMI). The children were also asked to report how much time they spent in sedentary activities, such as watching TV or using a computer.
According to Reuters, "Sixty-nine percent of the children were getting at least an hour of moderate physical activity a day, while 58 percent reported having less than two hours of screen time daily."
The results of the study showed that even though children who were inactive had bigger waists and more body fat, much of this could be attributed to less physical activity.
However the strongest ties to waist size and fat mass could be attributed to the time children spent engaging in vigorous activity, and their combined moderate activity-vigorous activity time.
One factor in the rise of childhood obesity is the super-sizing of the American diet. The portion size of french fries, hamburgers and soda served in restaurants has grown by two to five times since 1977.
Approximately one-third of children are consuming this food on a daily basis. Another alarming statistic is that the average teenager is 13 percent less physically active today than in 1980, according to Dr. Lisa Sutherland, a researcher at the University of North Carolina. That’s a lot more calories going in and a lot less being burned.
The effects are clear. Pediatrics magazine estimates this trend is adding six pounds to each child every year.
Kids are not getting enough activity. In the past decade, the number of children participating in daily physical education classes at school has dropped from 42 percent to 29.
We cannot expect traditional physical education to be the only way to get kids in shape. The old adage, "It takes a village to raise a child" still rings true. Community groups, businesses, families and individuals can make a difference by creating better choices that are fun and exciting outside of the classroom for kids.
Getting kids involved in local races is one way to help them stay active. Whether they are 3 or 18 years of age, children become more aware of the positive effect fitness can have on their lives when they become involved at an early age.
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