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Solving
Childhood Obesity Won’t Be Easy, Expert Says
AUBURN, JAN.
10---Childhood obesity has
reached epidemic proportions in the United States and Canada. While
the problem is easily understood, it will not be as easily solved,
says one expert.
"The causes of
childhood obesity are not difficult to understand," says Dr.
Bob Keith, an Alabama Cooperative Extension System nutritionist.
"Basically we have two things going against kids: a plentiful
supply of food, which often tends to be high in calories and full of
fat and sugar, and a lack of physical activity."
While the wide access to
high-caloric food is a serious enough problem, Keith believes the
second factor -- lack of physical activity -- contributes
significantly to obesity in young people.
The problem of physical
inactivity among young people, noted by experts as far back as 20
years ago, has spiked within the last decade – a factor Keith
attributes to the ever-increasing availability of visual media.
"Since about 1980,
computers and video games have just boomed," he says.
"Coupled with that is the explosion of cable-television
channels, which offer kids more viewing selections than ever
before," he says.
The result is a
generation of children who are turning to visual media for the
stimulation that earlier generations derived from physical
activities such as touch football or basketball.
"I often think
about how different things were 20 years ago when kids were outside
playing sports and burning calories instead of sitting inside
playing sports video games on the computer," he says.
"What you have is a generation that has to make an effort to be
physically active. Unless they think about it, they can go an entire
day without being physically active."
Another complicating
factor is the number of schools that have phased out mandatory
physical education after the middle-school years.
The end result, Keith
says, is a rising generation of young people prone to the diseases
that affected earlier, more physically active generations much later
in life: hypertension, cardiovascular disease and adult-onset
diabetes.
Unfortunately, he says,
the solutions won’t be easy, and the problem is likely to get
worse.
"You can’t take
away computers, because they’ve now become an integral part of
their lifestyle," he says. "Kids are going to play video
games and watch all of these television programs despite all of our
best efforts."
As Keith sees it, part
of the solution should involve re-introducing mandatory physical
activities in the public schools, especially in middle schools and
high schools.
Moreover, parents can
take a more proactive role encouraging their kids to remain active
-- even taking part in physical activity with them in some
instances.
Parents even can develop
creative ways to help their children become more physically active.
"It doesn’t have
to be as structured as sports, but it has to be something that keeps
you moving and burning calories, such as bicycling, walking and
gardening."
Studies have shown obese
children have an exceptionally hard time losing weight and following
through with lifestyle changes in adulthood when their health, and
even their lives, may depend on them – all the more reason why
parents should encourage kids to remain physically active throughout
childhood, Keith says.
(Dr.
Robert Keith, Alabama Cooperative Extension Nutritionist,
334-844-3273)
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