New Harvard Study and My ObservationsThe answers to a happy, healthy life are all out there, but sometimes the world just gives you an extra nudge to recognize them. That's what happened to me today.
One of my clients brought his 2-year old with him to our session. Due to an unexpected and unpreventable emergency, he was in charge of childcare. While I
do not advise bringing a child to a gym that hasn't been specifically designed for that purpose, this child was incredibly well behaved so we
decided to try and see if we could safely workout. We told the boy to sit on a large mat where he'd be out of harm's way, occupied him with a light ball for him to play with, and kept a sharp eye on him. What impressed me more than the boy's good behavior (I didn't even know that 2-year
olds could be so calm), was the way the boy watched his father workout. His eyes grew wide when he watched his father do a crunch called a ball pass (my clients all know this one). He wanted to do one himself, so we held a small 2lb ball while he could approximate the movement--just like dad. He also wanted to do
triceps dips holding on to a weight bench, just like dad. Holding and the supporting the boy we helped him mimic the exercise. At one point, the boy saw a weight bag hanging, and he tried to punch it. I know my client studies martial arts so I asked if the boy watched his father hitting the bag at home. Of course he did.
Children are impressionable. They learn from adults, especially adults they love and admire. At 2-years old, this little boy is already learning that it is normal to be active and to care about being fit. So what I saw was a little boy who would one day be playing outside, joining a sports team, climbing trees, and growing up fit and strong. He has the foundation to establish a healthy lifestyle and avoid childhood (and then adult) obesity and all of the health issues associated with it. Not only is it important to set a good example for the sake of the children that may be watching, those good examples are also going to help us become more healthy for our own sakes.
With those thoughts still fresh in my mind, I came across the following article concerning a new Harvard Study that (not surprisingly) found a correlation between
children's weight and the amount of time they spend watching television (
ie. inactivity). While not explicitly stated, a child drinking excess juice while watching TV can be seen as an early form of mindless snacking.
Heavy television viewing makes young kids fatThe more three-year-
olds watch
television, the more sugary drinks they consume, and the extra calories turn into extra weight, a US study published Wednesday showed.
Harvard Medical School researchers presented the results of the study of 1,203 children at the American Heart Association's annual conference on cardiovascular disease and prevention, in Orlando, Florida.
For every one-hour increase in television viewing per day, the children consumed an additional 46 calories, Sonia Miller, the lead author of the study and a Harvard medical student, said in a statement.
"Although 46 calories a day doesn't sound like much, it can make a difference in weight over time," said Matthew
Gillman, a senior author of the study and director of Harvard's obesity prevention program.
"Studies estimate that you can explain the amount of excess weight gain in the US adolescent population over the past 10 years or so with the addition of only 150 calories a day,"
Gillman said in the statement.
"If this 'energy gap' also applies to younger children, then each hour of daily TV or
video watching could explain about one-third of that increase," he said.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends against television or video viewing by children under age two. Above that age, it recommends no more than two hours of screen viewing per day.
"The most important thing to note is that the obesity epidemic in this country involves not just adults, not just adolescents, not just school-age children, but all the way down to infants,"
Gillman said.
"And once a child is obese, it is very hard to treat. So obesity prevention is the way to go."
Of the 1,203 children studied, 87 percent came from families with incomes greater than 40,000 dollars a year and 72 percent of their mothers had at least a college degree.
The American Heart Association recommends that children not be allowed to have a television set in their bedrooms and encourages an hour of moderate-to-vigorous play or physical activity a day.
