Lack of Exercise May Not Be Only Culprit in Teen Obesity: Study
A surprising new study, published earlier this month in the journal Obesity Reviews, showed that the amount of exercise among teens hasn’t decreased significantly over the past two decades, even while obesity rates among youngsters have skyrocketed. Does this mean that exercise isn’t important in controlling weight?
Here’s my take on this: as a runner, I’ve always wanted to believe that I could eat anything I wanted, as long as I exercised. After all, I was exercising strenuously for an hour a day, five or more days a week. But let’s look at the big picture. Eating just 10 to 20 extra calories a day – that’s one potato chip or a piece of a candy bar – can result in a two-pound gain over the course of a year. So if I run five miles and then treat myself to an extra dessert at night, it doesn’t all even out. No wonder my jeans are tight.
Likewise, the researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health suggest that the culprit behind the weight gain in the teens studied (16,000 high school students between the ages of 15 and 18, who took part in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s longitudinal Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey (YRBS) was not a decrease in exercise but increase in consumption. Case in point: junk food.
Let’s walk down the grocery aisle and fill our basket: Oscar Mayer Lunchables, Betty Crocker Fruit By The Foot, Kid Cuisine Chicken Breast Nuggets, and even Pepperidge Farm Goldfish Crackers. All typical kid-pleasing snacks, laden with calories, fat, and lacking the fiber and nutritional punch of say, a simple banana. What mom hasn’t thrown one of these foods at their child in a desperate, busy moment? Pull into a convenient store, and you’re hard pressed to find an orange or apple, whereas, when I visited Japan years ago, the equivalent of a Seven-11 had healthy, pre-packed fish and vegetable meals.
The study did find that the percentage of teens who spent more than three hours a day in front of the TV dropped from 43 to 35 percent between 1999 and 2007. But other research has found that younger kids – ages 6-11 – the up-and-coming generation – are watching more television than they have in years. This increased viewing among kids mirrors the overall increase in media consumption, including games, cell phones, and Internet use. And this young audience is watching more commercials, which feature, guess what? Sugary breakfast cereals, among other things, marketed directly to children as young as age two.
Dr. Youfa Wang, lead author of the study and associate professor at the Center for Human Nutrition at Hopkins, sees the data as a wake-up call. “We still need to make a greater effort to promote physical activity. Even if it does not explain obesity, it has many other beneficial effects,” she told Time magazine. But keep in mind that the YRBS is self-reporting by youth – and kids will tend to give socially desirable answers to certain questions (over reporting exercise and under reporting consumption); because, after all, how can exercise have remained the same with PE being minimized in schools? So take the survey results with a grain of salt – if they consume more bad food it’s likely because that is what’s offered more and more to them by school, family, and community. Bottom line: exercise and nutrition go hand-in-hand.
A surprising new study, published earlier this month in the journal Obesity Reviews, showed that the amount of exercise among teens hasn’t decreased significantly over the past two decades, even while obesity rates among youngsters have skyrocketed. Does this mean that exercise isn’t important in controlling weight?
Here’s my take on this: as a runner, I’ve always wanted to believe that I could eat anything I wanted, as long as I exercised. After all, I was exercising strenuously for an hour a day, five or more days a week. But let’s look at the big picture. Eating just 10 to 20 extra calories a day – that’s one potato chip or a piece of a candy bar – can result in a two-pound gain over the course of a year. So if I run five miles and then treat myself to an extra dessert at night, it doesn’t all even out. No wonder my jeans are tight.
Likewise, the researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health suggest that the culprit behind the weight gain in the teens studied (16,000 high school students between the ages of 15 and 18, who took part in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s longitudinal Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey (YRBS) was not a decrease in exercise but increase in consumption. Case in point: junk food.
Let’s walk down the grocery aisle and fill our basket: Oscar Mayer Lunchables, Betty Crocker Fruit By The Foot, Kid Cuisine Chicken Breast Nuggets, and even Pepperidge Farm Goldfish Crackers. All typical kid-pleasing snacks, laden with calories, fat, and lacking the fiber and nutritional punch of say, a simple banana. What mom hasn’t thrown one of these foods at their child in a desperate, busy moment? Pull into a convenient store, and you’re hard pressed to find an orange or apple, whereas, when I visited Japan years ago, the equivalent of a Seven-11 had healthy, pre-packed fish and vegetable meals.
The study did find that the percentage of teens who spent more than three hours a day in front of the TV dropped from 43 to 35 percent between 1999 and 2007. But other research has found that younger kids – ages 6-11 – the up-and-coming generation – are watching more television than they have in years. This increased viewing among kids mirrors the overall increase in media consumption, including games, cell phones, and Internet use. And this young audience is watching more commercials, which feature, guess what? Sugary breakfast cereals, among other things, marketed directly to children as young as age two.
Dr. Youfa Wang, lead author of the study and associate professor at the Center for Human Nutrition at Hopkins, sees the data as a wake-up call. “We still need to make a greater effort to promote physical activity. Even if it does not explain obesity, it has many other beneficial effects,” she told Time magazine. But keep in mind that the YRBS is self-reporting by youth – and kids will tend to give socially desirable answers to certain questions (over reporting exercise and under reporting consumption); because, after all, how can exercise have remained the same with PE being minimized in schools? So take the survey results with a grain of salt – if they consume more bad food it’s likely because that is what’s offered more and more to them by school, family, and community. Bottom line: exercise and nutrition go hand-in-hand.
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