A study out of Louisiana State University has designated lack of physical activity as the most prominent indicator of childhood obesity.
The findings, recently published in the journal Obesity, linked lack of sleep and physical activity in tandem with long stints in front of the television with a higher prevalence of obesity among children. Researchers used data from the International Study of Childhood Obesity, Lifestyle and Environment, to examine relationships between lifestyle choices and childhood obesity worldwide.
The data set included information from 6,000 children of diverse economic and ethnic backgrounds from a dozen countries with varying levels of human development.
“We know that diet and exercise play significant roles in overall health and weight management, but I was surprised to see that physical activity makes an even bigger impact on children’s weight than we previously thought.” Dr. Peter Katzmarzyk, one of the study’s authors, told the News Star.
“This study shows that obesity cannot be explained away by culture, class or status, and these research results reinforce the need for kids to engage in play time and other forms of physical activity each day,” said Katzmarzyk, associate executive director of population science and public health at Pennington Biomedical Research Center.
Rates of obesity have more than doubled since the 1970s and more than one out of three Americans carry excess body fat, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Obesity, in part, causes aggressive breast cancer in postmenopausal women, prostate cancer in older men, and other chronic ailments. The new study supports prior research stressing the importance of maintaining a balanced diet and highly physical lifestyle in shedding pounds and staving off illness. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends at least 60 minutes per day of physical activity for children six years and older.
But, according to the academy, nearly half of young people between ages of 12 and 21 years exercise regularly and they have little impetus to do so. Only six states — including Illinois, Mississippi, Massachusetts, and New York — require physical education for children in every grade. For some parts of the country, unsafe neighborhood conditions, inadequate access to parks, and long distances to important locations, discourage consistent physical activity. This disregard for fitness often persists in one’s later years: Fewer than five percent of adults take part in at least 30 minutes of exercise, according to data compiled by the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition.
In recent years, lawmakers, parents, and member the private sector have collaborated to create environments amenable to physical fitness. In 2010, First Lady Michelle Obama launched her “Let’s Move” initiative in an attempt to get children more active and direct federal resources to create healthier environments. The New York Restoration Project too expressed plans to increase physical activity in the South Bronx, announcing the addition of bike and pedestrian routes, access to a waterfront, and 800 trees to two South Bronx neighborhood last month. A $120,000 grant awarded to Haven, Connecticut will fund the city’s Health in Your Hand program, which includes a physical activity component for children and their families.
Local government officials in Washington, D.C., too, have embraced physical activity. Children in the nation’s capital will soon play on new fitness clusters, playgrounds designed to help young people improve their balance, agility and strength. These sets include balance beams, parallel bars, sit-up benches, and chin-up bars, all with protective coating that reduces injuries.
“Part of the recommendations for physical activity for kids is to not only get aerobic activity, but muscle and strength activity,” Dawn Podulka Coe, an associate professor in the Department of Kinesiology, Recreation and Sports Studies at the University of Tennessee, told the Washington Post. “So monkey bars, where they’re holding their bodyweight…anything where they’re loading the muscle and the bones is going to help strengthen them.”
But everyone’s not so quick to point to physical activity as the ultimate solution in the fight against obesity. Some argue nutrition plays a bigger role in a person’s overall health. Coca-Cola recently received some backlash for downplaying the role of sugary drinks and fast food in the obesity epidemic. The international health care community has also weighed in. Three doctors submitted an editorial to British Journal of Sports Medicine calling exercise’s impact on obesity “minimal.” Instead, the trio cited excess sugars and carbohydrates as key culprits.
“An obese person does not need to do one iota of exercise to lose weight, they just need to eat less,” London-based cardiologist Dr. Aseem Malhotra, one of the editorial’s authors, told BBC in April. “My biggest concern is that the messaging that is coming to the public suggests you can eat what you like as long as you exercise. That is unscientific and wrong. You cannot outrun a bad diet.”