A long time ago, The American Heart Association had a great educational poster that showed a child lounging on a couch watching television.  The caption read, “Prevent couch potatoes while they are still small fries.”

The poster was prophetic.  A new study published in yesterday’s Journal of the American Medical Association definitively showed that children exercise less – a lot less – as they get older.  As 9 year olds, boys and girls in the study did moderate to vigorous physical activity about three hours a day during the week about the same amount of time on weekends.  By the time they were fifteen, they averaged only 49 minutes per day during the week and 35 minutes per day on the weekend.  This is well below the current recommendation for children of 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity per day.  Girls experienced the biggest drop in physical activity time.  Of course, low levels of physical activity put children – and adults – at risk for becoming overweight and developing chronic conditions such as diabetes and heart disease.

So how do we prevent our “small fries” from being couch potatoes and now in the computer age, “mouse potatoes?”  This study did not determine the reasons for the decline.  But likely, for these children and in the population at large, there are fewer opportunities to be active during the day and after school.  Consider that recess and physical education has diminished if not gone away in most schools.  Some neighborhoods don’t have sidewalks or parks that make it easy for kids to play safely.  And even if they could, many children are not allowed to play outside until their parents or caregiver gets home.  Parents and caregivers need to be made aware of the importance of physical activity in their children’s lives.

The Stand Up & Eat web site is committed to helping people of all ages be active and eat healthier diets.  As the site grows, you will find more tools and resources that you can use to activate yourself, your children, and your community. 

Use the comment section below to let us and others know how you are practicing or promoting active living and healthy eating.