Our childhood was one where we all walked to school. We ‘played out’ at every opportunity – ball games, chase, tig, war (boys only), skipping (girls only). We ran, jumped, skipped and swashbuckled over each and every obstacle, stopping only briefly for a jam ‘buttie’ and glass of full-fat milk to recharge the batteries. We invented parkour! Our parents were ‘on their feet’ all day because there were few labour-saving devices around and nobody employed a cleaner.
The modern child lives in a protective bubble where they lead largely sedentary lives. They are not allowed to ‘play out’. There are ‘NO BALL GAMES’ signs on almost every street corner and patch of grass.
They are ferried to and from school (people park their cars as close to a door as they can get). Once inside they seek a cosy hole where they interact with their mobile devices. Back at home, they vegetate for hours playing computer games. You do not have to be an expert in health and fitness to know that if you do not release more energy than you take in you will put on weight. It is a simple enough equation.
Less than a quarter of ten- to 13-year-olds exercise for more than an hour a week and this falls to 17 per cent for under-15s. Thirty-eight per cent of teenagers spend more than two hours a day online and over a quarter spend over three hours watching television (Department of Health report 2015).
To try to arrest the alarming rise in childhood obesity, schools are becoming almost evangelical in making sure no unhealthy snacks are consumed on their premises. Lunchboxes are scrutinised, fizzy drinks are confiscated; there’s barely a chip to be seen on the dinner menu. It’s a wonder that there are not sniffer dogs being used to prevent children smuggling contraband into the classroom.
Pupils recite the ‘five-a-day’ mantra but then demolish copious quantities of sugary drinks to help wash down savoury pastries from the corner shop on their way to school or on the way home, sometimes both. Many children skip breakfast and others come home to an empty house, to a note on the fridge telling them which microwave meal to have.
It is the responsibility of parents to ensure that their children are cared for. Children who are obese are sometimes malnourished – this is neglect. Being overweight affects a child’s self-esteem and wellbeing. Many suffer bullying as a result. Professionals are quick to respond to the starving child dressed in rags, so why not one who wears designer clothes but is clinically obese?
Despite the good intentions of schools to promote healthy eating their impact is marginal, but schools can play a significant role in the fight against childhood obesity.
PE lessons take up around two hours per week on the school curriculum. NHS guidelines suggest that children between the ages of five and 18 years should undertake at least 60 minutes of moderate exercise a day. Children under five should have at least three hours per day.
Most of a child’s waking day is spent at school, sitting, and this makes schools complicit. They should do more to ensure that all children get regular exercise. Some primary schools in Scotland get their pupils to run a mile around the playing field every day. In China, each day starts with half an hour of compulsory fitness exercises.
There are fitness regimes to suit all situations. Perhaps schools preoccupied with performance targets might consider ‘high-intensity programmes’. Five minutes of vigorous exercise at the start and finish of each lesson and the guidelines would be met. The added benefit of this would be to reduce stress and oxygenate a sluggish bloodstream.
It is a no-brainer. There is a lot of focus on what our children eat, but without balancing that with regular exercise our offspring’s waistlines will continue to expand.
