One in three kids not physically fit

[buttmunch]

By Liz Szabo, USA TODAY
One out of three U.S. adolescents is physically unfit, putting them at increased risk of heart disease when they get older, new research shows.
In a study in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers asked kids to walk or run on a treadmill, then measured their heart rate and blood pressure.

About 34% of 3,110 adolescents fell into the bottom fitness level.

Unfit kids tended to have other health problems, too.

They were more than twice as likely to be overweight, according to the study. They were two to three times as likely to have high cholesterol than kids with higher fitness scores.

Black girls and Mexican-American boys were the least likely to be fit, according to the study.

Based on the study's results, researchers estimate 7.5 million adolescents between ages 12 and 19 nationwide are unfit, says Mercedes Carnethon, lead author and assistant professor of preventive medicine at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago.

Researchers evaluated kids using the FITNESSGRAM program, a commonly used and highly regarded health assessment based on a child's age and sex that was developed by the Dallas-based Cooper Institute.

Participants were drawn from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, organized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Nearly 14% of adults 20 to 49 who took the treadmill test also were physically unfit. Those over 50 and people with serious health problems were excluded from the treadmill test for safety reasons, so the true number of out-of-shape adults is probably much higher, Carnethon notes.

For years, health experts have been concerned about kids eating more and exercising less than previous generations. About 31% of U.S. children are overweight or at risk of becoming so, according to the CDC.

The new study may be more precise than older surveys about physical activity, says James Hill, who directs the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver.

Many earlier surveys relied on children to accurately remember how often they exercised, says Hill, who did not contribute to the paper.

Carnethon says her study is the first to measure fitness objectively in a large population of adolescents and adults.

Richard Milani, a preventive cardiologist at the Ochsner Clinic Foundation in New Orleans, says he is "very concerned" about this generation of children. "These are the future heart patients of tomorrow," he says.

Hill says the study should serve as a "wake-up call," telling parents to improve their children's health.

"It doesn't work to lie there on the couch and tell them to go out and be more active," Hill says. "If kids see their parents as being active, they get the message."

I absolutely agree that kids mirror thier parents in how active they are. Sometimes the husband and I would rather do nothing than veg in front of the telly all weekend. Instead, we get our butts up and go hiking or swimming or walking or maybe just visit the playground for awhile. My kids are sports freaks, but they are active and get bored if they haven't run around every day.

[nana55]

Working in an elementary school it is easy to see why. 1. They food in the school cafeteria is just fat, fat, fat. Too much cheese and starch. 2. the lunches moms pack are atrocious. Those little pre-packaged lunchables are nothing but fat, fat, fat. They are good once in awhile like for a field trip but not everyday. Parents are too lazy to pack a decent lunch. 3. No exercise! They have cut P.E. at most schools due to budget cuts, the kids are driven to school or take the bus. Too dangerous to let them walk to school I guess. 4. when they get home, no one is there so they stay in the house, snaking and playing video games or watching T.V.

[buttmunch]

You hit on most of the reasons, Nana, and I think it's a damn shame. Sure my kids want to eat crap most of the time but they aren't allowed to. I think I may have erred on the side of caution a bit too much, because now I have a seven year old who tells ME not to eat chocolate because it's bad for you. I think once in awhile, a treat is fine, but generally, in my house, it's healthy produce, lean meats and lots of activity, whether that's taking swimming lessons or just kicking a ball around. Then, when I treat them, my kids are usually pleased as punch.

[Mr. Authority]

I definitly agree with ya Nana. Especially about how schools serve fat lunches. When I went to take my nephew to his school, I went in to walk him to his class and while I was walking down the hall, I passed the cafeteria and I saw like 4 vending machines. And half of them were pop machines. I thinking "WTF are vending machines doing in a elementary school?". There's no healthy aternative in school lunches these days. Sure there may be offerings of an apple, but any kid will choose a bag of cheetos over an apple.

It just comes down to how kids are raised by parents. If there raised by parents who don't eat healthy, then the kids won't eat healthy either.

[SVZ]

They offer apple slices at McDonalds now...




that you can dip in caramel, or mayonaisse

[miss_perfect]

When I was growing up, you couldn't keep me inside. It absolutely baffles me that most children don't have PE four days a week. Especially where I live - we have the perfect climate for children to be outside, doing physical activity. I don't get it.

[suede]

God I remember we had PE every day AND recess - no sat still - recess was for hopscotch - WOOOWHO!!! YAH!

[buttmunch]

And people wonder why kids have all sorts of attention problems to boot. perhaps because they aren't running off all that energy and thus can't sit still for more than five seconds?