Little Men in Red Shorts have Big Mouths

To bolster low tests scores we cut gym class, still serve pre-packaged sugary foods, and allow our nation’s youth to lead a sedentary lifestyle. Some of the only physical activity that children may get is during class and we just cut that so now we’re lucky if mom and dad got them a Wii (not that it’s the equivalent of running outside or playing basketball). Gosh, no wonder we’re all a nation of chubbies.

Recently, fitness guru Richard Simmons told Congress what’s up:

"What have we done to the kids of the United States of America? This is wrong. ...I just may run for office to help really get this through."

Simmons’ testimony comes as budget cuts are forcing public schools to scale back or eliminate physical education programs. Simmons and his supporters held a rally after the testimony. – Fox News

Simmons continued his passionate speech:

“In many, many schools . . . there is no PE or it’s once a week or twice a week …our children are obese, our children are sick. They have diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure. They are not social-skilled, they don’t go out and play.”

With the current trends in treatment with childhood obesity management, we are barely putting a band-aid on the problem (or perhaps, putting icing on a burnt cake). We need to focus more energy on nutrition and physical activity education for parents and schools. Just because our fried chicken has no trans-fat doesn’t mean it’s not a path towards the perils of obesity related complications.

Related articles:

Richard Simmons Pushing Physical Education for All Students

Exercise: a new idea for reducing childhood fat and increasing test scores