The Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) just
released updated state-by-state obesity rates and Colorado has the lowest rate
in the nation at 20.7%. However,
between 2005 and 2009 Colorado was the only state with an obesity rate below
20%. [1] In 1990, no state had an obesity rate of more than 15 percent,
according to the CDC. Even though
the people of Colorado may be in first place in this contest their rate is
trending in the wrong direction.
My opinion has always been that obesity is nothing more than a sneeze a
side effect of our behaviors and the current culture we live in. In America we all strive for the quick
fix and we are all trying to get more done and be in more places in the same
24-hour window. Quality home
cooked meals; family fun and active free play have been sacrificed to a fast
paced, high-tech, hyper-competitive race to the bottom culture.
It is my strong belief that this generation of children
while more active in team sports are as physically unfit than at any time in
recent memory. Three topics that
have shaped my opinion in recent years are the following:
Youth Sport Injuries
are at an all time high
High school athletes account for an estimated 2 million
injuries and 500,000 doctor visits and 30,000 hospitalizations each year
More than 3.5 million kids under age 14 receive medical
treatment for sports injuries each year
Children ages 5 to 14 account for nearly 40 percent of all
sports-related injuries treated in hospitals. On average the rate and severity
of injury increases with a child's age
Overuse injuries are responsible for nearly half of all
sports injuries to middle and high school students [2]
National youth
obesity rates
Childhood obesity has more than tripled in the past 30 years
The percentage of children aged 6–11 years in the United
States who were obese increased from 7% in 1980 to nearly 20% in 2008.
Similarly, the percentage of adolescents aged 12–19 years who were obese
increased from 5% to 18% over the same period
In 2008, more than one third of children and adolescents
were overweight or obese [3]
National Security
Concerns
Department of Defense data indicates that an alarming 75
percent of all young Americans 17 to 24 years of age are unable to join the
military because they failed to graduate from high school, have criminal
records, or are physically unfit
Being overweight or obese turns out to be the leading
medical reason why applicants fail to qualify for military service. Today,
otherwise excellent recruit prospects, some of them with generations of
sterling military service in their family history, are being turned away
because they are just too overweight
Mission: Readiness, an organization of retired senior
military leaders, is warning Congress that at least nine million 17- to
24-year-olds in the United States are too fat to serve in the military. That is
27 percent of all young adults [4]
All is not lost however. Awareness is key in order to turn the tide and improve the
health and fitness of the youth in our community and adults seems to understand
this.
Adults across the U.S. rate not getting enough exercise as
the top health concern for children in 2012, according to a new University of
Michigan C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health.
In the poll's annual top 10 list, a nationwide sample of
adults were asked to identify the top 10 biggest health concerns for kids in
their communities. For the first time, most adults rated not getting enough
exercise as the top health concern (39 percent). That was followed closely by
childhood obesity (38 percent) and smoking and tobacco use (34 percent).
"Childhood obesity remains a top concern, and adults
know it is certainly linked to lack of exercise," says Matthew M. Davis
M.D., M.A.P.P., director of the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on
Children's Health.
"But exercise offers many more benefits other than
weight loss or preventing obesity – such as better attention and learning in
school and improved sense of well-being," says Davis, associate professor
of pediatrics and internal medicine at the U-M Medical School and associate
professor of public policy at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.
The rest of the poll results were:
4. Drug abuse (33 percent)
5. Bullying (29 percent)
6. Stress (27 percent)
7. Alcohol abuse (23 percent)
8. Teen pregnancy (23 percent)
9. Internet safety (22 percent)
10. Child abuse and neglect (20 percent) [5]
The American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM)
initiated the development of the STOP (Sports Trauma and Overuse Prevention)
Sports Injuries campaign along with it’s organizational partners, including the
American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, the American Academy of Pediatrics,
the National Athletic Trainers' Association, the American Medical Society for
Sports Medicine and SAFE Kids USA. These organizations shared AOSSM's concern
about the increase in youth sports injuries and came together under the common
goal to STOP Sports Injuries. And
according to the group, more than half of all sports injuries in children are
preventable.
This is certainly encouraging news and the resolution to
youth sports injuries, obesity, and lack of military readiness involves getting
back to the basics and using common sense. Children first need to learn how to move generally and
master/learn their own bodies before they can master the more complex movements
involved in sports. By establishing
a basic foundation of general movement they learn to optimally coordinate and
stabilize their bodies making them far more resilient to injury. Additionally, establishing a solid
foundation at a young age allows them the diversity of skill required to progressively
improve and eventually master more complex movement patterns. As an example a young baseball player
should master the art of spotting a fastball and changing speeds before
learning how to throw a curve ball.
Rotating sports seasonally is also important to prevent burnout and
overuse injury.
It should also be noted that seasonal sport participation
while an excellent way to expand a child’s skill set is inadequate in regards
to overall physical fitness.
Playing sports to get in shape is a backwards idea. Professional athletes whose priority is
to maximize their performance on the filed of play take off-field/court/ice
training very seriously in the off-season. They use general training to gain strength, power, mobility
and core stability to play their sport at a high level. Playing a sport will not necessarily
improve these qualities, in fact long seasons and sport specialization can
actually degrade these athletic qualities. That said, strength, power, mobility and core stability are
absolutely necessary to excel on the field of play and establishing a solid
movement foundation early in life through free play best develops these
qualities. And as the
demands of sport increase in the mid-late teen years a dedicated training
program will be necessary to defend against future injury and keep developing
athletes in top-notch condition.
I strongly believe that the lack of free play and general
conditioning for children is at the heart of issues such as obesity, sports
injuries, and lack of military readiness.
Let’s face it not all children like sports and those that don’t are
usually relegated to sedentary pursuits such as video games or computer
time. It’s in all of our best
interest to provide opportunities for vigorous activity for all children, yes,
even those that play sports.
Children should gain basic fitness in order to play sports but because
of the intense nature of the youth sport culture they predominately play sports
to gain their fitness.
Organized sport participation is simply not able to
accomplish the task of getting kids in shape. Watch any game at any level and you will notice a lot of
standing around interspersed with an occasional explosion of speed or a
moderate tactical run. Most teams
have dedicated conditioning programs that support on field play and that is
essential now more than ever because kids aren’t getting it away from the
sporting environment.
However, it must be acknowledged especially for kids that do not aspire
to anything beyond having fun with their friends that this type of conditioning
is not fun and a big reason why many of them leave sports. At the developmental stages of youth
sports the goal should be to increase participation and not to decrease it.
As coaches and parents we need to be mindful of this and
adapt our practices by making them more general in nature and emphasizing fun
over performance especially in the developmental years (pre-high school). At the high school level the intensity
necessarily gets ramped up but even then making practices fun while also
implementing general athletic development principals are essential for keeping
kids motivated, resistant to injury while also providing them the environment
to optimize their fitness levels, athleticism and their ability to serve if
they are so inclined.
Phil Loomis
Youth Fitness/Nutrition Specialist
Reference:
Additional Reading:
All of the articles and studies listed below were released
in the last week and all had different takes on youth obesity. I could have easily included over a
half dozen others. I don’t expect
you to read through all of them but I include them just to point out that this
issue is diverse and has a wide array of potential negative ramifications.
Early antibiotic use linked to childhood obesity
Childhood obesity puts kids at a higher risk for serious
illnesses like heart disease, stroke, diabetes, asthma and certain types of
cancer. It also is costly for our health care system: The obesity epidemic
costs our nation $117 billion per year in direct medical expenses and indirect
costs, with childhood obesity alone costing up to $14 billion per year in
direct health care costs.
“If we don’t act to reverse the childhood obesity epidemic,
we’re in danger of raising the first generation of American children who may
live sicker and die younger than the generation before them,” according to the
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation website. “Preventing obesity during childhood is
critical, because habits that last into adulthood frequently are formed during
youth.”
A 12-year-old boy has been barred from playing with his
local Pee Wee football league in Texas because he exceeds the league’s maximum
weight restriction. At 6-foot-1 and 297 pounds — 162 pounds over the 135-pound
limit — the league says he is too big to play safely with other boys his age. Very difficult situation here and this
article presents two differing points of view.
Obese Youth Have
Significantly Higher Risk of Gallstones
“Although gallstones are relatively common in obese adults,
gallstones in children and adolescents have been historically rare," said
study lead author Corinna Koebnick, PhD, of the Kaiser Permanente Southern
California Department of Research & Evaluation. "These findings add to
an alarming trend — youth who are obese or extremely obese are more likely to
have diseases we normally think of as adult conditions."
Modern technology add to youth obesity:
"Technological innovations, more processed foods, a
greater amount of 'screen time,' less exercise, and higher consumption of snack
foods have all played a role," report co-author and economist Anusuya
Chatterjee said in an institute news release. "These are all the adverse
effects of a knowledge-based society."
Laws strictly curbing school sales of junk food and
sweetened drinks may play a role in slowing childhood obesity, according to a
study that seems to offer the first evidence such efforts could pay off.
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