CHAPTER SEVEN: The Path to Better Health and a Longer Life
“Among the most sacred gifts you can
give your child is the gift of health. This
gift is best given by example."
- Dr. Rand Olson
Children’s Fitness
A recent report by Donald Haydon, executive director of the American Health and
Fitness Foundation stated, “We’ve got an alarming problem with the
deteriorating state of fitness in American kids. There is no question
that our kids are now far more sedentary than kids were twenty years
ago.” 1988 studies found that American children ages three-to-five spend
60% of their free time in sedentary activities and only 11% of this time in
vigorous physical activities. Much of the children’s sedentary time is
spent in front of a TV watching fast food commercials that promote the
consumption of the wrong kinds of food. The result is that obesity among
children ages six to seventeen has more than doubled in the last 30
years. Recent school surveys have reported that 25% of all American
children in this age range were found to be obese. Our children are
becoming fatter, weaker, slower, and more subject to future serious health
problems as they age into adulthood.
“Using a utensil such as a fork or
spoon to bring food from your plate and into your mouth is not an aerobic
exercise.”
- James P. Buchanan
Obese children also face social discrimination such as sarcastic remarks such
as, “The bigger the belly, the smaller the mind” and being named “The
Incredible Bulk.” One child remarked that his ill-tempered and obese
sister was always using her mouth to either chew someone out or to shovel food
in. I overheard one group of boys singing a viciously sarcastic song to
an obese child, to the melody of “Blow the Man Down.” The song was,
“(child’s first name) the baboon, (child’s first name) the baboon, hey, hey,
(child’s first name) the baboon. He’s big as a whale and as dumb as an
ox. Oh, please, don’t sit on us.”
“To enjoy the glow of good health,
you must exercise.”
- Gene Tunney
Equally important, social discrimination for many obese children often extends
to not being invited to parties and after school sports events. This
discrimination causes many obese children to become socially withdrawn.
This social isolation sometimes causes a downward spiral of overeating (to mend
a poor self-image) that causes heavy children, or the parents, to become even
heavier.
A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Magazine reports that
60 percent of overweight children have medical complications such as elevated
cholesterol, triglycerides, or insulin levels. These are complications
which often lead to serious adulthood health problems and premature
death. A 1999 report issued by the St. Mary’s / Duluth Clinic Health
System of Duluth, Minnesota sounds a grim warning. Every day, 3,000 young
Americans start smoking. Nearly half of all young people who are ages 12
to 21 are not vigorously active enough on a regular basis. More than 36%
of people younger than age 19 have high cholesterol.
All three of these factors, combined
with corporate greed, advertising that equates overeating with happiness and neglectful
parenting contribute to heart diseases that are our nation's number one killer. It would appear that our children are being unintentionally
set up to die of heart disease in adulthood. What we need to avoid this
and improve young people's health is change in our lifestyles! Our
children’s lifestyles, but also adults’ lifestyles, need changing.
Meanwhile, our kids are destined to die prematurely in the name of short term
corporate profit.
“Daily exercise is one of the keys to
excellent health.”
- Awaken the Greatness Within
Working parents, who are often pressed in an increasingly competitive labor
market, do not always have the luxury of time to make sure their children are
active in at least one type of sport. Moreover, family time formerly used
outdoors in energetic physical activity is now often spent on indoor sedentary
activities such as playing video games, watching television, or surfing the
Internet. To insure a bright future for our country we must introduce
children to regular physical exercise in elementary school. Physical
education opportunities need to be available for children to develop an
interest in physical activities that they can enjoy into and through the
adulthood years.
Also, because individual daily schedules often conflict, families now eat fewer
meals together. As a result many children and teenagers eat many of their
meals while “Mall Trawling,” where most of the available fast food contains too
much sugar, fat, and salt to provide good human nutrition. Another point
to consider is that mall dining reduces parental influence over the type and
amount of food their children eat and encourages “impulsive eating,” even when
shoppers are not hungry! Even more
tragic is that most communities have much better places for youth to be at,
such as the local YMCA or YWCA, volunteering at local libraries and museums, as
well as after school social and sports clubs.
“Encouraging children to live healthy
lifestyles is something I take very seriously.”
-
Mo Williams
Another problem is in the nation's educational system. Often school
districts cut down on physical education courses while expanding courses
contributing to a harmful sedentary lifestyle, such as computer studies.
As we ask the nation’s schools to stretch fewer dollars on more subjects, they
have reduced or eliminated physical education classes. Dr. Arthur Elster,
head of the Department of Adolescent Health at the American Medical Association
says: “From the ninth to the twelfth grades, participation in physical
education classes drops from 100% to 50%!”
“Teaching kids about health and
fitness is important to me. It's about
being fit for life.”
- Jackie Joyner-Kersee
Simultaneously, many public school boards have closed, or are closing,
beautiful neighborhood schools within walking distance of apartments and homes
while they are building distant, huge, and ugly, “warehouse” schools.
Students now spend more time on buses, or chauffeured by parents; while
decreasing the time, distance, and calories that students once used to walk to
and from school. (School officers I have talked to, from janitors to
principals, privately admit that replacing neighborhood schools with warehouse
schools saves very little or no money.) We need to invest more money for
rebuilding our neighborhood schools, while closing or downsizing the warehouse
schools. This one act of reason and sanity will go a long way to building
healthier neighborhoods and healthier students.
No comments:
Post a Comment