By SHARON LEM,Toronto Sun
The majority of kids in the GTA won’t be getting enough exercise once school’s out for summer, a survey indicates.
Only one-quarter of 500 parents contacted in May said they had summer activities arranged for their children, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario said Monday.
About 49% of the parents said they were too cash-strapped to afford programs for kids, while 26% said they didn’t fit into their schedules.
“The situation is quite serious when you think about the acceleration of unhealthy behaviours we’ve seen in children and youth in terms of unhealthy eating and poor physical activity,” Dr. Marco Di Buono, director of research for the foundation, said.
Di Buono said Ontario has seen a 300% increase in high blood pressure rates among teens and people in their 20s over the past decade. He said he is seeing cholesterol levels in 20-year-olds that normally are seen in 60-year-olds.
Unlike past generations, kids nowadays play sedentary computer and video games and live in a calorie-dense society with nutritionally poor foods.
In 2006, the foundation identified childhood obesity as a critical issue with 28% of Ontario’s children being overweight and obese, and at risk of developing heart disease, high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes at an early age.
Programs need to become accessible and affordable — whether the children live in Toronto or in rural areas, Di Buono said.
He said parents don’t need to sign their kids up for structured programs, but could instead accompany them to the park to play.
According to the 2010 Active Healthy Kids Canada report, only 14% of Ontario children and youth are meeting Canada’s guidelines of 90 minutes of physical activity per day.
Colleen Hill and her husband Sean Farnel have registered their seven-year-old son Jimmy and six-year-old daughter Tess into a Toronto day camp for $2,000 a month.
“My husband and I both work, so some of the challenges we faced were affordability and fitting the camps into our schedules,” Hill said.
“But it’s a sacrifice we felt was important to make so they can be physically active and be outside.”
Response
This is sadly true. My generation is not getting enough exercise or going outside during the summer. It is even harder because of the recession and other financial issues. It makes me think that the government needs to open more free programs for us children to stay active and not have an excuse.(Put those taxes to good use :P). We need to keep ourselves healthy and active it is an essential in life, but life is not the same as it was 50 years ago. The weather is harsh because of global warming so it does make it harder for us kids to go outside and play and enjoy ourselves in the icky humid heat. The weather is a huge problem and so are our parents being too busy because they have to work their butts off in order to provide for us. We would enjoy going out with our parents and participating in summer based activities, (even though we do not show it) but money is hard to make and frankly it is just not as safe as it use to be outside as well. So opening or providing us with free physical activities would make us more able to enjoy summer and get active. It will help lower our health problems. This topic is a hard one because there is so many things we could do, it's just the money is the big necessity that is hard to get and keep. I am concerned for my own health because I am guilty of staying inside because of the weather and other issues and I do hope they will open some more free places for us to go. So this will remain an issue for many kids and families for awhile.
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http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2010/06/21/14468371.html
ReplyDeleteI think that this article brings up good points. Our health care coasts are already sky rocketing, and with this generation they could bankrupt the nation. It is very important that we improve the health of our youth so we don't have to deal with the coasts later.
ReplyDeleteI agree with this article, I have found that the generation that is coming after me just keeps on getting less active, as well as the girls being more conscious of food at an early age. My generation as well is poor in getting physical activity and eating well compared to past generations. I have noticed the girls at young ages have already started unhealthy eating habits, where some barely eat at all. I also do not see as much kids playing outside as I use to when I was a child, which was not many years back. The amount of athletic activity has surely decreased compared to past years. One of the reasons for this is the new technology, like video games, and it is the parents fault as well, where they should be reinforcing their child to get physical activity each day, and to have a healthy diet. I believe that if we want to see a change in this trend, then the parents of the future must take responsibility for their children and push them to be physically active and have a healthy diet. Our society should not wait on others to fix our problems for us, each individual, each parent must take the necessary actions to give children a healthy lifestyle.
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