A researcher at Plymouth University in the South of England has concluded that the child obesity crisis in England has not been caused by a lack of exercise.
He also concludes that the current crisis in children’s health is caused by the type and amount of food we are feeding our kids.
If that’s right, it’s shocking to think that the fast meal you treat your kids to may be causing them long-term harm. In the UK nearly 15% of children are clinically obese. Not slightly overweight, but obese. That’s 5 or 6 children in the average classroom. And that’s for children under 10!
The evidence shows that physical activity seems to be controlled by a child’s genes. If a child does a lot of physical exercise at school they tend not to do much more when they get home. But a child who does no physical activity at school tended to do more in the evening when they got home.
Professor Wilkin suggests that there is no correlation between how much activity you do and your body mass index.
If that’s correct and it’s true for children, it must be true for adults too. So you may not be able to shift much weight just by exercise alone. A pretty bleak thought for anyone who’s wanting to lose some weight.
Just consider this statistic from the UK: Roughly £1.5 billion ($2.8 billion) is being spent on providing school sports fields. Just 0.07% was the funding sought by the research team. No funding has been offered.
So what would be a sensible way to ensure your child doesn’t get fat? Come to that, what would be a sensible way for adults?
Well, the Professor hasn’t advocated stopping activity. But he does put emphasis on diet, both quantity and quality. So a wholesome regime of fresh foods, fewer treats and yes, some activity, would seem to be a winner.
Since so little funding is available for research into this important area it seems we’ll all have to do our own research. Fortunately with the internet in so many homes at least the tools are there. You just have to use them.
———————————————–
Amin Motin has been involved in self-help technologies for over 15 years With extensive experience in helping people to reframe their mental attitudes toward life and in creating success, he knows first hand the power of subliminal mind conditioning.
Using simple techniques he has helped many people overcome fear of success, fear of failure and fear of life. As Amin says, ‘It only takes a second to change your mind’.