Though schools nationwide have in recent years come under sharp criticism for not offering enough physical activity and healthy food, children may be more likely to get pudgy during summertime than during the school year, new research has found.
For two years, scientists from Ohio State University took body mass measurements (BMIs) periodically from 5,380 kindergartners and first graders in 310 schools. They found that BMI gains were faster during summer vacation than when school was in session, and gain rates were highest among three subgroups most at risk for obesity: African American children, Hispanic children, and children who were already overweight at the beginning of kindergarten.
The researchers, led by Dr. Paul Von Hippel, didn’t let schools off the hook. They recommended that schools teach healthy habits that “target children’s behavior not only during school hours, but also, and most importantly, after the bell rings.”
But there’s much parents can do. Other newly published research has confirmed that kids shovel down more calories if they’re spending hours at home called “screen” time, such as watching TV and playing video and computer games.
“The more parents can get their children up and moving, playing games outside and running around, the thinner and happier their children will grow up to be,” encourages Scott Danberg, MS, Director of Exercise at the Pritikin Longevity Center & Spa.
Every summer, kids nationwide get plenty of calorie-burning action – as well as a phenomenal education in eating well and staying thin for life – in the Pritikin Family Program at the Pritikin Center.
Recently published data charted the program’s health benefits. Numerous factors linked with heart disease improved, and “the changes noted in some measurements were very significant,” wrote the UCLA scientists conducting the study. Within two weeks, the children, all overweight, shed on average nine pounds, lowered total cholesterol 23%, decreased LDL cholesterol 25%, lowered triglyceride fats 39%, and dramatically reduced other key markers of heart disease, including oxidative stress (injury to the inner lining of the arteries).
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