Nearly 80% of California adolescents are out of shape, with whites and Asians leaner and fitter than Latinos and African Americans, according to a statewide study released Monday.

The gap mirrors economic and academic gulfs between the groups, and it reflects persistent research documenting higher rates of unhealthful diets, obesity and related diseases, including diabetes, among low-income groups.

The fitness results are drawn from more than 1 million students statewide who took physical tests last spring--running a mile, doing push-ups and pull-ups, among other things. Leading health experts believe the results bear directly on academic achievement. To improve scores in reading, writing and math, minority students must improve their physical fitness and diets with help from parents and schools, researchers and state officials believe.

"There is a tie between healthy minds and healthy bodies," said Debbie Vigil, a consultant with the California Department of Education, which released the fitness results. "Kids are probably going to be more sluggish in the classroom if they are unfit."

Health educators say too many students eat junk food and spend excessive amounts of time in front of televisions, computers or video games.

The lax habits come at a time when schools are retreating from physical fitness as they concentrate on teaching basic skills and raising test scores.

The size of PE classes in California reaches 60 students or more on some campuses, and in elementary schools, classroom teachers with minimal experience often teach the subject. Moreover, in many areas of the state, school overcrowding--made worse by efforts to reduce class sizes--has sharply limited playground space.

Although only a third of white and Asian students are physically fit, they still are far better off than their Latino and African American classmates.

That is because many Latino and African American students face the additional effects of class and culture. Children in low-income neighborhoods get less exercise because they don't have access to organized sports leagues or can't afford to join teams, experts say.

"There are some kids who are growing up in high-crime neighborhoods where parents have real fears about letting them outside to play in parks and frontyards," said Amanda Purcell, who manages a high school nutrition and physical activity program for the Public Health Institute in Berkeley. "We've got kids spending more time inside and being less active."

Culture plays a potentially harmful role in the health of many Latino children, whose diets often include a lot of fried foods, health advocates say.

Eloisa Gonzalez, a physician with the Los Angeles County Department of Health, cites chilaquiles--a traditional Mexican breakfast dish eaten in many homes that is made from fried tortilla chips mixed with scrambled eggs and tomato sauce.

Taken together, unhealthful diets and meager exercise exacerbate disadvantages that poor children already face.

"Students who are less fit have higher absentee rates," Gonzalez said. "If they're not in school, how will they learn?"

Individual schools conducted the study, using fitness standards developed by the nonprofit Cooper Institute for Aerobics Research in Dallas. The fitness results were collected for fifth-, seventh- and ninth-graders. To be deemed fit, the students had to meet minimum levels in six categories, including aerobic capacity, flexibility and upper body strength. Students also had their body fat measured.

Overall, the study painted a troubling picture of the health of California's schoolchildren. Among the findings:

* Just 23% of all the tested students were physically fit, slightly higher than when test results were first reported two years ago.

* Thirty-two percent of white seventh-graders were in shape, as were 34% of Asian seventh-graders. By contrast, just 19% of Latinos and 19% of African Americans were considered fit.

* Thirty-five percent of African American ninth-graders had too much body fat to be healthy, as did 38% of Latino ninth-graders. By contrast, 28% of white children, and 20% of Asian students, fell into that category.

Of particular concern to state officials were the results for aerobic capacity, an indicator of how well the heart and lungs work. More than half of ninth-graders statewide did not meet the threshold for aerobic health when asked to run or walk a mile as fast as possible.

California requires elementary school students to have 200 minutes of physical activity every 10 school days, or about 20 minutes a day. For grades seven through 12, the requirement is 400 minutes every 10 school days. At the high school level, most students take PE for only two of the four years.

The state's requirements are average compared with other states but fall short of what leading health and fitness experts recommend. Federal guidelines suggest that students through high school receive at least 60 minutes of physical activity a day.

But schools, facing intense pressure to improve academically, are reluctant to carve out that much time for PE.

"A lot of schools don't even count PE in the overall [grade point average]," said Curtis Garner, chairman of the physical education department at Fillmore High School, where only 5.4% of the ninth-graders were considered physically fit. "What kind of message does that send?"

At 118th Street Elementary School in South Los Angeles, teachers are so focused on lifting test scores that they don't always have the time to teach physical education. It's a matter of priorities at a school where almost all of the children are poor enough to receive subsidized lunches and a majority are still learning English.

"Sometimes we don't have the equipment or the right facilities in the yard," said Francisco Gonzalez, the school principal. "If you want to do aerobics, you need a boombox. Sometimes we lack the resources to do that.

Fitness results for schools, districts, counties and the state are available at the California Department of Education web site, http://http://www.cde.ca.gov/statetests/pe/pe.html.

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Times staff writer Jenifer Ragland contributed to this story.

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Fitness Rates

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