Atlanta Journal Constitution
March 15, 2000
Editorial Page
I am alarmed by the steady trend we have seen over the last two decades toward decreasing physical education requirements in public schools across the country. As a nation, we are becoming increasingly more sedentary in our lifestyles --- at home, at school and at work. Televisions and computers promote sedentary habits at home; fewer and fewer schools require students to take physical activity at school, and new convenient labor-saving devices require expending less energy at work.
We have no national data to assess activity levels among children. But we do know that, currently, no state mandates daily physical education in grades K-12, and participation by adolescents in grades 9-12 in daily physical education has declined dramatically --- by about one-third, from 42 percent to 27 percent between 1991 and 1997.
These factors, combined with an American diet that is too heavy on sweets and fats and too light on fruits and vegetables, have raised obesity to epidemic proportions in the United States. It is increasing at alarming rates in both children and adults, and disproportionately in minority populations. According to data from CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, more than half (54.9 percent) of adults in the United States are overweight or obese, 25 percent of women and 20 percent of men are obese and 10 to 15 percent of children and adolescents are overweight or obese.
Obesity is associated with a variety of risk factors for cardiovascular disease, such as elevated cholesterol, hypertension and Type 2 diabetes mellitus, as well as an increased risk of cancer and other diseases (In the case of Type 2 diabetes, which used to be known as "adult onset diabetes," we are seeing a dramatic increase in prevalence in children as young as 9 years old). In each of these areas, we also find an area where minorities are disproportionately represented. The total costs of diseases associated with obesity have been estimated at almost $100 billion per year, or approximately 8 percent of the national health care budget.
The 1996 Surgeon General's Report on Physical Activity concluded that physical activity is important for weight control and appears to favorably affect distribution of body fat. By using energy and maintaining muscle mass, physical activity is a useful and effective adjunct to dietary management for avoiding weight gain or losing weight. And our 1999 Surgeon General's Report on Mental Health found epidemiological studies indicating that people who are inactive are twice as likely to have symptoms of depression than are most people.
(Information provided courtesy of www.pelinks4u.org)