Dr. Carol Torgan explains this epidemic perfectly in her article “Childhood Obesity on the Rise.” Please see the excerpt below:
“Obesity in kids is now epidemic in the United States. The number of children who are overweight has doubled in the last two to three decades; currently one child in five is overweight. The increase is in both children and adolescents, and in all age, race and gender groups.
Obese children now have diseases like type 2 diabetes that used to only occur in adults. And overweight kids tend to become overweight adults, continuing to put them at greater risk for heart disease, high blood pressure and stroke. But perhaps more devastating to an overweight child than the health problems is the social discrimination. Children who are teased a lot can develop low self-esteem and depression.
There are many causes of obesity. While there’s no doubt genetics plays a role, genes alone can’t account for the huge increase in rates over the past few decades. The main culprits are the same as those for adult obesity: eating too much and moving around too little. Almost half of children aged 8-16 years watch three to five hours of television a day. Kids who watch the most hours of television have the highest incidence of obesity.”
(Click Here for the full article!)
Outdoor Education helps to address this problem by having children spend more time learning about nature both in and outside the classroom. Such lessons and games taught in this setting lead children to having more confidence to explore outside and a more active lifestyle.