Bring the kids back to the playground

September 18th, 2006

Dr Olds, professor at the University of South Australia has researched children’s diets from over three decades and has arrived at this conclusion - Children of today are eating less food (including less fat) than they used to.

According to his research, which included an extensive study of 1700 published research papers, two-year old children in Australia were eating 16 percent less than a decade ago. Similarly, the intake of 11 year-olds was down by 5.6% over the same period.

The professor blames the drop in physical exercise as the reason for rampant obesity in childhood and not overeating or fast food consumption as believed.

While the popularity of fast food among the children is definitely on the rise – be it Australia, US, UK or Asia- as the spiraling sales at the global outlets of fast food indicate, ruling out its role in child obesity could be debatable.

But even more important observation that’s come from Dr Olds is the fact that busy parents have no time to take the kids out to the playground. This is a serious trend and probably universal too.

I do not have to look far to find an example on this. As a busy parent myself, I do not recall when was the last I took my daughter out to play in the park. It’s not that she did not ask me to take her out. And it’s not that I have been too lazy to meet the demand. The fact of the matter is that the daily grind of working life and long distance travel between home and office have clearly taken toll of responsible parenting.

It is precisely for this reason that I put my daughter to regular practice of yoga. For, even I was concerned about her paunch and her being increasingly lethargic about going out with other kids whenever they came calling.

Fast foods are a bane of our times for reasons of their being low on nutrition and essential fibre. We as parents have an immense responsibility of educating our kids about not just healthy diets but also bringing them to the playground and the world of physical activity.

Entry Filed under: Healthy Lifestyles