- Nine out of 10 schoolchildren are not doing enough exercise
to ensure that they grow into healthy adults, according to a major new
study.
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- Only 10 per cent of young people get the one hour a day
of physical activity that ministers, health experts and scientists say
is necessary.
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- The findings have sparked new fears that many young Britons
are turning into 'couch potatoes' whose sedentary lifestyles mean they
are much more likely to become obese in later life and suffer a whole range
of diseases. They underline how age-old habits such as playing football
in the street have been replaced by indoor pursuits involving computers
and televisions.
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- When researchers monitored activity levels among 4,500
11-year-old pupils in the Bristol area using sophisticated motion sensors
called 'accelerometers', they found that some did no exercise at all, only
a few did the recommended daily hour, and most did some but not enough.
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- 'Kids should be doing 60 minutes a day of moderate to
vigorous exercise to be truly healthy and ensure their bones and cardio-vascular
systems develop properly. But this study shows that most are not doing
that', said Professor Chris Riddoch, head of the London Sports Institute
at Middlesex University, who led the research. Riddoch is a government
adviser on children's health and international expert on physical activity.
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- 'Children are doing a lot of exercise such as walking,
but just not enough vigorous stuff like running around and playing football.
The fact that more and more of them are getting fatter shows that they
aren't balancing the energy they take in from food by burning off calories
through exercise', he added.
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- Recent Office of National Statistics figures showed that
22 per cent of boys and 28 per cent of girls aged two to 15 in England
were overweight or obese, while a study last month said British children
were the third fattest in the world after the US and Malta.
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- Experts in obesity said Riddoch's research, part of the
Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, was alarming but inevitable.
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- 'We live in a society where parents are too frightened
to let their kids out to play, school playing fields have been sold off
and streets are so packed with parked cars that youngsters have nowhere
to kick a ball around even if they feel like it', said Neville Rigby of
the International Obesity Task Force.
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- 'We need to do nothing less than change the world they
are growing up in. We have to create safer spaces for them to play in so
they have an incentive to leave their keyboard behind and go outside, and
reduce the amount of fatty and sugary foods they consume', added Rigby.
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- Dr Ian Campbell, chairman of the National Obesity Forum,
said: "If we want these trends to change we need to redesign our built
environment to encourage walking and cycling, make it safe for children
to be outdoors, and learn to eat together as families again in a non-rushed
way.'
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- Campbell urged ministers to put money into promoting
physical activity as a normal part of everyday life, and not just into
sport.
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- Boys were much more likely than girls to do an hour a
day, while children from lower socio-economic groups do more than peers
from better-off backgrounds, according to Riddoch's survey.
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- The Department of Health declined to comment on Riddoch's
findings, which he will present at next week's American College of Sports
Medicine annual conference in Nashville, Tennessee. But a spokeswoman confirmed
that the Chief Medical Officer's advice is that 'children and young people
should achieve a total of at least 60 minutes of moderate-intensity physical
activity each day.'
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- The Government's Physical Education School Sport and
Club Links strategy was increasing the amount of PE and sport which pupils
did in and out of school, she said.
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2005
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- http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1494947,00.html
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