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More on the FATS...
Slightly embarrassed at our erroneous report on children's obesity
(as noted on the home page this month) we decided it best to do
some careful checking on the topics of overweight and obesity.
Assuming that we can trust our US Government Center for Disease
Control (CDC) we visited its web site and located the section
on "Obesity and Overweight." Here's what we found - direct
quotes from the CDC!
- Obesity has risen at an epidemic rate during the past 20 years
- One of the national health objectives for the year 2010 is to
reduce the prevalence of obesity among adults to less than 15%.
- Research indicates that the situation is worsening rather than
improving. Source
- An estimated 61 percent of U.S. adults are either overweight
or obese, defined as having a body mass index (BMI) of 25 or more.
(35% overweight, 27% obese). Source.
- The percentage of children and adolescents who are defined as
overweight has more than doubled since the early 1970s.
- About 13 percent of children and adolescents are now seriously
overweight. Source.
Although the good news is that the percentage of children facing
health problems associated with being overweight or obese is not
as high as with adults, the increasing trends should alarm us all.
Repeating an opinion we shared last month, overweight and obese
children face much more than threats to their health. These children
experience limited social interactions and poor health clearly impacts
opportunities for intellectual development. It's vital that all
physical educators accept their responsibility for doing more to
promote children's health.
Unfortunately, we fear this responsibility is being mis-communicated
when so many PE teachers continue to simply "force" children
to do boring and painful physical activities.
We need to remember that children's activity patterns differ from
adults. Adults are often happy to run, walk, bike or lift weights
for long periods. Children often don't find this kind of exercise
motivating.
The measure of our success is not what we can make children do
when they are in our classes. What's important is what they do when
they are NOT in our classes.
Clearly with more than 60% of adults overweight we haven't been
very successful in the past! We can of course argue that students
are only in our classes for brief periods of school time. That's
true. But it also raises questions about what we are doing while
we do have them!
Too frequently we observe a rehash of curriculum choices that worse
than failing to inspire children to be physically active, actually
TURN THEM OFF! Children leave these classes with a desire to avoid
similar experiences and hence a future life of physical inactivity.
Got an opinion on the above? We'd love to hear it. Email
us or post directly on our PE
Forum. Have a great September.
PE Links4U Staff
Health and Fitness Section Editor
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