It’s time to face the facts: Most Canadian kids are not getting the required amount of daily physical activity. Obesity rates are climbing and traditionally adult disease such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes, are rapidly becoming commonplace among young adults and children.
According to Active Healthy Kids Canada, a research group formed to promote physical fitness, less than half of Canadian kids under five are getting regular physical activity as part of their daily routines. They also found that only 36 per cent of children between two and three and 44 per cent between four and five regularly engage in unorganized sport and physical activity each week.
With summer rapidly approaching, parents and children alike need to take advantage of the warm weather and start creating a culture of physical activity at home. This can be structured activity such as baseball teams or cheerleading squads, or unstructured activities like a family mountain bike rides or even a neighborhood game of hide and seek.
The solution to this problem begins by shutting off the TV and video games and exposing kids to healthy activities such as sport and play early on, so that they will carry these habits with them into adulthood. Parents must play an active role in this by encouraging (and in some cases financing) healthy childhood activities and also by limiting/restricting unhealthy habits and sedentary lifestyles.
