To attack the growing number of obese children, the state of New York decided to mandate public schools outside New York City to report a summary of the students’ weight and body mass index (BMI) to the New York State Health Department. Otherwise known as a fat report card.
For many years the State Health Department has collected data on infectious diseases to guide the state’s communicable disease prevention efforts. “By collecting vital weight status information, we can begin to treat obesity like other public health threats and better target our prevention efforts,” said Commissioner Daines.
By now, everyone should know that obesity can lead to type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, heart disease, joint problems, cancer, respiratory problems and can lead to depression and the leading causes of obesity is poor nutrition and lack of physical activity.
However, I find it interesting that schools are slowly replacing recess with more academia to increase test scores. What does it mean if there’s no recess? [WHAT, no RECESS!!??] Studies have linked lack of energy and concentration and even depression to living an unhealthy lifestyle. Your body functions are partially controlled by food and certain hormones. You eat and move around to trigger these hormones. If you deprive your body of this, it will cease to function; therefore, replacing recess with academia could potentially make things worse.
News articles and studies should change their wording and label it “Unhealthy Lifestyle” instead of just focusing on the obese. There are ‘skinny’ kids/people who have heart disease or distended abdomen due to poor nutrition (found in 3rd world countries) and this group of people need to be addressed. And no, it’s not anorexia nervosa or bulimia. These people eat, but the wrong kinds of food. In my opinion, for every obese child, there is a child living an unhealthy lifestyle.
So, if you experience any of the following, it’s time to change your habits: you get exhausted just walking up a flight of stairs, can’t jog/run for more than 1 minute without gasping for air, feel it is required that you park really close to an entrance of the market because you can’t even think about walking the extra 50 steps.
State of New York, I salute you for taking the initiative to teach children better habits (because parents leave everything to schools, television and the Internet). And parents, I give you the H…I plead the fifth.
Anyone else noticing a new trend of increased poor nutrition, diseases, low self-esteem and ‘hook-up’ sex?? Children used to be nurtured and taught to survive on their own (taught goals). Now, our children have no idea what they should be doing (free-loaders).
Source: eMaxHealth.com