1 March 2004
BARCELONA – Spanish children do 40 percent less exercise today than they did 20 years ago, according to a study published Monday.
If they do not start doing more exercise, there will be an epidemic of obesity among children, the report warns.
The report, from a pediatric journal at the Institute of Dexeus in Barcelona, found children between the ages of five and 15 do less exercise than their parents – despite the fact people think the opposite is true.
During the ‘middle age’ of childhood and adolescence, the numbers of children doing exercise falls “drastically”.
Less children are dedicating time to sport or going to the gym and fewer spend any time each day doing physical activity of any kind.
Lack of exercise is usually goes hand in hand with a rise in obesity, the report said.
This is because children get into bad habits which can make them fatter and lazier.
The report said there had been a “spectacular” increase in the rise of obesity among Spanish children, particularly girls.
One in ten was thought to be overweight.
The authors of the report talked with experts from the Centre for the Prevention and Control of Juvenile Risk in the United States.
In the US, 45 percent of children do not do any physical activity.
The researchers recommended children should help around the house as a way of avoiding obesity.
[Copyright EFE with Expatica]
Subject: Spanish news