18 Aug Activity Levels for Today’s Kids Peak at Age Ten
It’s shocking news: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that physical activity among American youngsters peaks before age ten. ©myacountnice, flickr
Today’s kids are so in tune with electronic media and social networking that it’s almost become a classic joke. The dark side of those jests, however, is that because our children no longer need to move much to entertain themselves, they suffer from obesity at a rate that far exceeds that of any other generation. In fact, today nearly one in three American youngsters is overweight or obese.
The results of a new study made me believe all the more that those kids-on-couches caricatures where everyone is absorbed in some sort of device or other while real life goes on unnoticed around him or her aren’t as funny as I thought. The reason is that we are no longer talking about hormone-raging preteens or unmotivated, moody teenagers. The report, released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), states that physical activity among American youngsters peaks before age ten — and perhaps as early as age two.
Think about it. Age two.
After that, it’s all downhill.
Incessant snacking
Thirty years ago, in a typical day, kids played outside for hours. ©Jeffrey, flickr
The methodology used in this new CDC study made use of statistics from 1999 to 2004 and compared them with data from 2012. In 1999, CDC scientists invited a sampling of young people to participate in “healthy fitness zone benchmark testing,” which involved jogging on a treadmill. Results from that experiment showed that only 52.4 percent of U.S. youth aged twelve to fifteen years had adequate levels of cardiorespiratory fitness. Fifteen years ago, most people found those findings shocking.
What’s even more disturbing, though, is that when scientists compared the 1999 fitness levels to the new levels reached by participant kids in 2012, they found a 10 percent decline. In 2012, only 42.2 percent of youth aged twelve to fifteen years had adequate levels of cardiorespiratory fitness.
Some blame our increasingly technological world for these declining fitness levels. And, in fact, data published just last month by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey found that 98.5 percent of youth ages twelve to fifteen reported watching TV every day, and 91.1 percent stated they used a computer outside of school on a daily basis. According to Let’s Move!, an initiative launched by First Lady Michelle Obama dedicated to solving the problem of childhood obesity within a generation, eight to eighteen-year-old adolescents spend an average of 7.5 hours a day using entertainment media, including cell phones, computers, movies, TV, and video games.
But electronic devices aren’t the only culprits. Thirty years ago, kids typically walked to and from school every day; ran around during recess; participated in gym class; and when they went home, they played outside for hours before dinner. Home-cooked meals, which usually included a vegetable, were served in reasonable portion sizes. Eating fast food and snacking were rare.
Let’s help our children lead healthier lives. ©Greg Westfall, flickr
Today, few children walk to and from school. Gym class and after-school sports have been cut from school budgets to save financial costs; afternoons are now typically spent with the Internet. Families eat fewer home-cooked meals, and snacks have gone supersize. Today’s kids eat about three snacks per day — resulting in an additional 200 calories — and one in five school-age children has up to six snacks a day.
The “nature nutrient” and vitamin A (for Adventure)
What’s even more bewildering is that we allow our kids to be so sedentary when we have more proof than ever before that outdoor activity alleviates all kinds of maladies, including attention deficit disorder, depression, high blood pressure, obesity, and stress. We can help our children lead healthier lives, and we already have the tools to do it.
If you need help finding the perfect antidote to inactivity in your children, contact an Adventure Collection member company. Backroads offers family bike tours and multisport trips and on Bushtracks Custom Trips page, you can plug in the age of your youngest traveler and find trekking African safaris. NOLS has special backpacking expeditions for teens.
Only one-third of high school students get the recommended levels of physical activity. Make sure your tween or high schooler is within that lucky — and healthy — third.
Here’s to your adventures, in whatever corner of the world you find them,
Candy
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