YOUNG CHILDREN are getting fat on a fast food diet and inadequate exercise; this because they are getting hooked on video games which do not require strenuous activity. Both habits are copied from the American lifestyle favoured by many young people.
The heightened obesity levels have been found in a UWI study done in collaboration with the Ministry of Health in the areas of recreation and nutrition.
The study involved children ages 11 to 12. It found that consumption of foods high in fat and low in vitamins, the common fare in many fast food establishments, in combination with inadequate physical exercise is leading to overweight.
The video games are obviously habit-forming and, as a form of recreation, are easily accessible in an urban setting, in contrast to the paucity of outdoor playing fields. The fast foods rarely approach the nutrition levels experts in the field would recommend.
To counter the trend the Jamaica Foundation for Cardiac Disease has launched a 'Heart for Life' campaign aimed at improving nutrition and more physical activity among children.
An educational component will be supplied by the Ministry of Health to educate students in the importance of exercise for good health; an aerobics competition will involve ten schools from each of six regions under the Ministry of Health to promote nutrition and healthy exercise.
While this campaign is laudable in its stated objectives we wonder about the role of homes and families in this matter of nutrition and recreation.
It seems to us that parents and guardians must have a primary role in determining what children eat; and indeed the kinds of games they play. Bear in mind that the university study targeted grade four students in the primary school system. These are not yet the potentially difficult teen years in which peer pressure and negative influences play a role.
There is some irony in the observation that street children, for example, have no problems with obesity and perhaps no access to video games.
