Health and Fitness Nov 08
Dr Rod Edwards PhD r.edwards@griffith.edu.au
School of Education and Professional Studies, Griffith University
Overweight Children, Fast Food and Exercise
My job (now part-time) is the education of future Health and P.E teachers in the values of exercise and the health education of nutrition. I am an exercise physiologist and a health educator and not a dietician/nutritionist. I will include more specific information in some future articles from a colleague who is.
School of Education and Professional Studies, Griffith University
Overweight Children, Fast Food and Exercise
My job (now part-time) is the education of future Health and P.E teachers in the values of exercise and the health education of nutrition. I am an exercise physiologist and a health educator and not a dietician/nutritionist. I will include more specific information in some future articles from a colleague who is.
Sorry to go on about this, but Australia has now passed the U.S in relation to percentage of young people who are overweight or obese.
Key Reasons:
1. Too much junk food (especially fatty and salty take-away and soft drink)
2. Not enough exercise.
One Example.
A 14 Year old goes to McDonalds and has a Big Mac, a medium French Fries, a medium coke and a hot fudge sundae. The following figures were taken from the McDonalds website and the RDI (recommended daily intake) are standard Australian figures.
With the above meal, the 14 year old would take in 5532KJ, 54.6 gms of fat, and 1445mg of sodium. This a about half their RDI for energy and salt and 70% of RDI for fat. (This is before any salt has been added after cooking).
I was unable to get Eagle Boys data at the time of submission of this article, but I will pursue it. The average meat pie is listed as 1894 KJ, 27.6gm fat and 1200 gms sodium.
Soft Drink
This is a real problem because it is now so cheap and yet high in empty calories (simple sugar). Serving sizes have also increased so that now 600 ml is often the norm instead of 375ml. It is easy for parents to be attracted by prices such as 10 x 375ml cokes for $5.85 and 2 litre bottles Kirks for $1.39 (IGA prices at 17/10/08). A better purchase for a child’s health would be the 6x250ml fruit juice drinks (25% juice) for $2.29. Yes, juice is still high in energy, but you drink much less and it has better nutrients.
Extra Hints for fat loss for families: Eat a good breakfast, have dinner together at a table and find time to exercise as a family – just a short walk after tea would do.
Physical Activity in Queensland Schools.
2008 was declared as Education Queensland’ “Year of Physical Activity”.
I am looking forward to finding out if it has been successful and if we have any results from that. It would be nice to get some feedback from children and adolescents in our schools to see if there has been an increase. Any information? My email address is: r.edwards@griffith.edu.au .
Key Reasons:
1. Too much junk food (especially fatty and salty take-away and soft drink)
2. Not enough exercise.
One Example.
A 14 Year old goes to McDonalds and has a Big Mac, a medium French Fries, a medium coke and a hot fudge sundae. The following figures were taken from the McDonalds website and the RDI (recommended daily intake) are standard Australian figures.
With the above meal, the 14 year old would take in 5532KJ, 54.6 gms of fat, and 1445mg of sodium. This a about half their RDI for energy and salt and 70% of RDI for fat. (This is before any salt has been added after cooking).
I was unable to get Eagle Boys data at the time of submission of this article, but I will pursue it. The average meat pie is listed as 1894 KJ, 27.6gm fat and 1200 gms sodium.
Soft Drink
This is a real problem because it is now so cheap and yet high in empty calories (simple sugar). Serving sizes have also increased so that now 600 ml is often the norm instead of 375ml. It is easy for parents to be attracted by prices such as 10 x 375ml cokes for $5.85 and 2 litre bottles Kirks for $1.39 (IGA prices at 17/10/08). A better purchase for a child’s health would be the 6x250ml fruit juice drinks (25% juice) for $2.29. Yes, juice is still high in energy, but you drink much less and it has better nutrients.
Extra Hints for fat loss for families: Eat a good breakfast, have dinner together at a table and find time to exercise as a family – just a short walk after tea would do.
Physical Activity in Queensland Schools.
2008 was declared as Education Queensland’ “Year of Physical Activity”.
I am looking forward to finding out if it has been successful and if we have any results from that. It would be nice to get some feedback from children and adolescents in our schools to see if there has been an increase. Any information? My email address is: r.edwards@griffith.edu.au .
