Youth Obesity Epidemic

Youth obesity has become a North American epidemic.

As of 2004, 26% of Canadian youth were either overweight or obese .
The obesity rates among 12-17 year olds has tripled since 1980.
And these numbers keep increasing.

How did this happen?

As with most epidemics, there is rarely one single event that triggers the landslide.

Some of the common culprits are:

1) Fast Food Nation: We live in a fast-paced, high-pressure society that leaves parents very little time to spend with their kids - let alone cook them dinner. Kids are constantly consuming snacks and meals that are devoid of nutrients and full of fat and calories. These foods are 'convenient' - they can be purchased at the drive-thru or at the corner store - but dangerous. An increased consumption of 'empty' calories most certainly contributes to increased obesity rates. But it isn't the only culprit...

2) Sitting Time: The average Canadian kid watches three hours of TV every day - a number which increases further once the weekend rolls around. Add to this the number of hours spent on the computer chatting with friends and/or playing video games, and many kids are sitting around participating in 'passive' entertainment for almost 5 hours per day! If we add these 5 extra hours of sitting to the 5 or 6 hours the kids spend sitting at school, it is easy to see why most North American children lead 'sedentary' lives.

3) Play Time: As mentioned above, modern life moves way too fast. The schedules of most kids are starting to look like those of their parents. If they aren't at piano one afternoon, they are at ballet. Or they are taking extra tutoring courses or an art class. I am not insinuating that these pursuits are unimportant. However, the overscheduling of kids' time has left little time to PLAY!

As it turns out, this seems to be a key battle in the fight against childhood obesity.

I was surprised to learn that as North America's youth obesity rate has skyrocketed over the last 25 years, the number of kids participating in 'structured play' has increased as well. More kids than ever are playing on soccer teams, learning how to play tennis and practicing hockey.

Wouldn't you think that this increase in structured physical activity would translate into healthier youth?

As it turns out, a number of studies have shown that a child's participation in structured play has little effect on their ability to fight off the obesity epidemic.

The number #1 prevention strategy for fighting the obesity epidemic is a child's participation in unstructured play!!!

Although there are safety and scheduling concerns that may keep kids from running around with their friends after school, we must find ways to facilitate participation in these unstructured activities if we are hoping to turn this epidemic around.