October 13, 2006
As We See It: Exercise the best defense against obesity.
State legislators as well as school officials are taking a look at a very real problem β childhood obesity β and coming up with a solution that probably isn't going to work.
New state laws take aim at fatty, high-calorie school food, forcing school districts to serve only healthy fare like salads, fresh fruit and other healthy food.
On the surface, such strategy seems fine. The problem is that the state can't force young people to eat food they don't want to eat. Sentinel reporter Matt King recent wrote about the problem in Santa Cruz area schools, and quoted the food services director for Santa Cruz City Schools as saying, "We cut up carrots and celery sticks and the kids didn't eat them."
At open campuses, like Santa Cruz High, students head out at lunch time and go to area fast-food restaurants, where they can get all the burgers and fries they want. The high school regulations mean nothing.
That's not to say our schools should just give up. But the solution is more likely to be on the exercise end of the equation β rather than the food.
Men's Health Magazine has taken on the issue of childhood obesity, and its editors have pointed out that other state governments have gone so far as to take whole milk out of schools or even to put a tax on video games.
The better solution, they argue, is to encourage a higher level of physical activity.
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According to Men's Health, a recent New England Journal of Medicine has reported that today's children face a life span of two to five years shorter than their parents. And it's because they're too fat.
Focusing on the food side may not work. As long as young people have a choice to eat fattening food β they'll do it.
But our schools can do a better job of ensuring that young people get enough exercise. Men's Health recently published games that actually qualify as workouts β all of which can be incorporated into physical activities at school.
It's not only young people that need more exercise. Local statistics show that even in Santa Cruz County β a community where opportunities to get outside abound β increasing obesity is one of the leading health problems.
But the problem is particularly bad for the youth. Some statistics say that 45 percent of American kids are overweight. Nearly 30 percent don't take any physical education classes. Only 8 percent of schools meet nationally recommended exercise requirements.
Increasing the amount of exercise would be much easier than enforcing "junk-food" laws. Parents should put pressure on their schools to increase the amount of exercise during physical education periods β as well as recess.
Exercise the best defense against childhood obesity
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