Study: Snacks don’t cause child obesity

By LISA CHAPMAN / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard

Snacks are a fact of life for many American children, like these Eastside students, from left, Jordan Hammond, Katey Gunter, Tiffany King and Sheena Baker. (Charles W. Johnson photo)

After studying more than 14,000 American children, a team of six Harvard doctors has reported snack food and soda do not play a significant role in childhood obesity.

The controversial study, which was published in the October issue of the International Journal of Obesity, puts the focus on exercise and activity ? not so much diet.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, the average child is watching about three hours of TV a day, with about five and a half hours on all media combined, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

All children over 2 years old should get 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise a day. Children should not be allowed to be inactive for prolonged periods.

Lack of exercise is not only causing children to be fat, but that obesity is leading to chronic health problems. The Centers for Disease Control reports 1 of 3 children born today will develop diabetes.

Making sure your child gets adequate exercise may also mean changing your own level of activity.

For most parents, this means participating in basketball, bicycling, ice skating, in-line skating, soccer, swimming, tennis, walking, jogging and running. Children learn their activities, or lack thereof, from watching adults ? most significantly their parents.

“I think the biggest excuse is we don’t have time and that’s because we don’t plan time,” said Parks and Recreation director Carlene Brown. “More Americans are associated with sedentary lifestyles than ever before. Parks and recreation systems are part of the solution.”

McMinnville Civic Center offers a variety of exercise options: weight room, tennis courts, basketball, racquetball, aerobics, gymnastics, kick boxing, and a walking trail, among other activities.

Brown recently attended an eight-hour clinic in Nashville sponsored by the National Parks and Recreation Department. The seminar offered strategies to promoting health, much like the six-week Shape Up Warren County program kicked off here after the fair.

Overall, Brown said the National Parks and Recreation Department has plans to tour the entire United States over the next 10 years promoting a program called Step Up to Health: It Starts in Parks.

“We have these facilities open to the public year round to give people the opportunity to get more active,” said Brown. “I had a father come in here for the first time the other day to shoot basketball with his son. It gave them a chance to get some exercise and spend some time together.”