Children are getting fatter and one St. Albert organization is doing its part to help fight the bulging trend.
St. Albert’s Kidsport chapter – an organization dedicated to helping underprivileged youth play sports – recently celebrated its first year of operation. In that time, it supported 80 children with grant money to help their parents afford to pay registration fees and buy equipment.
Keith M. Drake, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Hood Center for Children and Families at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, published a study in the 2012 Journal of Pediatrics that suggested organized sports plays a key role in maintaining healthy children.
The study stated that if all adolescents played on at least two sports teams per year obesity rates would plunge 26 per cent and the prevalence of overweight adolescents would fall by 11 per cent. It added that if all adolescents walked or biked to school at least four days each week, the numbers of obese children would drop by 22 per cent. If those numbers can be relied on, we should take heed because the rates of obese and sedentary youth in this country are disturbing.
According to Statistics Canada, currently 59 per cent of adult Canadians are either overweight or obese and Alberta is one province outpacing the national average in terms of this worrying statistic.
In 1978, only 15 per cent of children were overweight or obese. By 2007, 29 per cent of adolescents had unhealthy weights. If current trends continue, the projection is by 2040 up to 70 per cent of adults aged 40 years will be either overweight or obese.
Obesity puts a massive strain on health systems, increasing prevalence of diseases such as heart disease and diabetes. In 2005, the total cost of obesity to Canadians was $4.3 billion – $1.8 billion in indirect health-care costs, and $2.5 billion in indirect costs. It’s also one of the most preventable health issues in our society.
While unhealthy food and bad eating habits are major contributors to weight problems among young people, inactivity is the worst culprit. When it comes to physical activity, learning good habits at a young age is essential to lifelong fitness.
Ideally, a child should be spending 60 minutes every day being active to maintain proper health. However, in 2013, less than seven per cent of children were meeting that guideline. Canadian youth are spending more time doing nothing. Healthy Kids Canada’s 2014 report card graded Canada with a D- for physical activity among youth.
That report card indicated Canadian kids aged three to four spend 5.8 hours a day being sedentary, those aged five to 11 spend 7.6 hours and those aged 12 to17 spend 9.3 hours.
While learning how to exercise independently is an important skill into adulthood, involvement in organized sports can substantially curb the obesity trend among youth. For that reason, encouraging involvement in organized sports should be a priority for parents.
Supporting St. Albert Kidsport will also help those families who can’t afford to pay for organized sports, give their children a chance to live healthy and active lives. While St. Albert is commonly viewed as an affluent community Kidsport’s donation figures over the past year shows there is a need.
