Kids, teens and adults continue to get heavier. One-third of children and teens in the USA (about 25 million kids) are either overweight or will become over weight. Even babies in the USA are heavier than they used to be. Being obese means having so much body fat that your health is in danger. When you take in more calories than you burn off, you gain weight. How you eat, how active you are, and other things affect how your body uses calories and whether you gain weight.
For the “busy bee’s” it is easier to reach for prepared foods, go out to eat, or go to the drive-through. What do all these alternatives have in common? They are all high in fat, high in calories, and are usually more than what we should eat. We are all aware that we must burn more calories than we take in, and still we wonder why we get bottom heavy when we do very limited physical activity.
FINAL WORD (KIND OF RANDOM): Illinois is the only state that requires daily physical activity for grades K-12.
2 comments:
Although Illinois is the only state that requires PE in schools, elementary schools only have PE scheduled once a week. In Jr. and High schools there is PE everyday but of a 50minute period, probably only 15-20 minutes are spent on an activity, and out of such activity it is likely that only 1x per week it is something that raises one's heart rate.
Hmmmm... are we REALLY doing things right?
Also, studies show that there is a DIRECT correlation with the amount of times a person eats fast food to how many pounds they are overweight.
Let's think about what we eat. Obesity causes secondary conditions like asthma, diabetes, and others, all of which significantly reduce one's quality of life.
Very interesting post. I was not aware that Illinois is the only state that requires PE in schools.
I am saddened to see obese, grade school age children that struggle to move around. I do not blame the kids. I blame the parent. As a parent, I know that I instilled my eating habits on my children. A toddler eats what you give him or her when they ask for food. Giving a child a cookie when he/she has behaved is acceptable, giving them the entire box of cookies so that he/she will just leave you alone, and not bother you is wrong.
Once your child is obese, you are predisposing to a long life of not only obesity, but stress and heart disease.
One more thing! If there are so many kids overweight in our schools, then maybe the state should go back and examine their PE requirements. My son Hector who writes for this blog, hated PE but he worked out after school. Parents again should encourage their children to work out, and discourage them from raiding the refrigerator late at night, or at least provide healthy, alternative snacks.
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