Parents, start your kids off right

May 11, 2009|By CHAD SMITH / For The Herald-Mail

With the continued rise of childhood obesity in the United States, I think it's time to take a good, hard look at what the causes are for this scary trend.

I'm going to ruffle some feathers with this one because I'm calling out the parties most responsible for the terrible disservice that our kids are being dealt in our increasingly inactive nation: parents. It would be easy to blame the schools for cutting back on physical education or the food industry for aggressively marketing crap food to young consumers.

But at the end of the day, it's neither the school system's nor the food industry's responsibility to raise our kids into healthy, active adults.

It all begins and ends at home.

We have to get serious about these kids and what patterns we're helping them develop every day. We allow numerous hours of Internet, X-Box and the latest MTV teen drama. Then we're surprised when little Johnny discovers he is now a type-2 diabetic at age 12 with a cholesterol count over 200.

When I was younger (here we go), I had to be dragged in from the local park or from the Boys and Girls Club, where I was kickball champion. Dodgeball ruled, too. The generation today isn't being encouraged to get out and play. Even the kids I see outside in my neighborhood, which has an exellent play area, don't play as much as sit and hang out.

Combine this inactivity with a steady diet of high-fat, high-sugar convienience foods, and, well, here we are.

It can be fixed however. We have to get our kids active every day. Feed them lots of fruits, vegetables and other good, supportive foods. McDonald's should not be a staple of daily family meals. We have multiple city parks with great summer sports programs. There are Boys and Girls Clubs all over the city that have regularly scheduled gymnasium activities. Let's make use of these invaluable resources.

Is it going to require some time and effort on our part? Yup. Is it totally worth it? Yup.

It's a fact that phyically active kids who eat lots of fruits and vegetables and maintain an appropriate weight perform better in school. They are happier in general than kids who are inactive and overweight and who eat less healthfully.

Do what you have to do to produce an active, healthy kid. Trust me. There's no downside.

For information on how to get your children healthier and more active, visit the Web site of the Alliance For a Healthier Generation: www.healthiergeneration.org

Chad Smith is co-owner of Home Team Fitness. Visit his Web site at www.hometeamfitness.net

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