Summary:
Better nutrition and more exercise are needed to keep down childhood obesity. The problem can sometimes be connected to school lunch programs. Some states have enacted laws that call for stricter nutritional guidelines for school lunches and vending machines.
Over 15% of kids ages to 6-19 are overweight and another 15% are headed that way. With a severe lack of exercise and poor eating habits, we are just asking to put on the pounds. While many younger kids are blessed with sky-high metabolisms, by the time kids get to high school they have slowed down dramatically.
With this slowed down metabolism, our bodies aren't as able to combat the huge amount of calories that are thrown at us by way of fast food, and even the lunch choices at school.
Many states all over the country are putting their foot down to try and ward off this unhealthy trend as a result many have taken steps to limit the sale of soft drinks and snacks from vending machines during school hours.
A few states like California and Texas have banned the sale of soft drinks entirely in middle schools, whether school is in session or not. (New York banned the sale of soft drinks but then replaced them with sugary Snapple drinks instead.)
However, the food we eat is only half of the problem, the other half is the amount of exercise (or lack of) teens and young adults are getting. On average, in most gym classes kids are aerobically active for just 5 minutes. Also in 1969, 80% of kids played sports every day, compared to the 20% who do today. We have been told since before we can remember that you should take the stairs instead of the elevator, walk to the park instead of driving there. It is true these tiny steps are what need to be taken to try and change this harmful trend.
In the mid 1990's one of the largest school-based "health intervention studies" involving 5,000 kids in four state, called CATCH (Child and Adolescent Trial for Cardiovascular Health) showed that improvements in the cafeteria, gym classes and health education could change kids' eating habits and activity at both home and school.
In the follow-up study a few years later found the those lessons had stuck, the kids who went through the CATCH program from third grade to fifth grade still had a healthier diet and were much more active when they reached middle and high school.
With over 2 million overweight teenagers in the U.S. we all need to start eating healthier and get moving. Even if it's bringing your lunch from home every once and a while, or taking a quick walk to a friend's house if it's not too far, every little step we take helps.
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