A National Epidemic?
About 25 percent of all American children and adolescents are overweight — a 20 percent increase over the last 10 years, and a figure that has some experts calling childhood obesity an epidemic.
     At the same time, physical education classes in public schools are decreasing, with only one quarter of schools currently requiring students to take physical education classes, down from 42 percent in 1991.
     A national drive to improve children’s academic performance has come at the expense of what some consider less important pursuits, including physical activity, according to Dr. Carl Gabbard of Texas A&M University in College Station. There are no federal mandates that require physical education be offered in the schools, and many states have no laws that address the issue.
     “Schools need to take some responsibility not only for the cognitive improvement of our children, but physical well being too,” says Dr. Leslie Bonci, director of the Sports Medicine Nutrition Program at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. “Having children sit in a classroom all day without any physical activity may not only lead to increased weight, but decreased ability to function well in the classroom.”
     She believes schools need to become “primary health providers,” offering nutritious food and a safe environment for physical education.
     But some experts say schools are more likely to be a main source for the problem, rather than a solution.
     “The number of schools with fast food franchises, sweetheart contracts with the soft drink companies, and multiple vending machines would surprise even the most jaded person,” says Kelly Brownell, Ph.D., a professor of public health at Yale University and director of the Yale Center for Eating and Weight Disorders in New Haven, Conn. “In some ways, the schools have become an agent for obesifying the American child.”