Thursday, May 15, 2008

Childhood Obesity

Here is an absolutely astonishing fact from research conducted at the University of Guelph:

"In a typical high school with more than 1,000 students, the cafeteria would sell only three to five pieces of fruit in total per day, which is extraordinarily low, and virtually no one is buying plain milk.”
If Dr. Wilson's research is correct, than the obesity epidemic is only going to get worse in the next couple years.

Combine these stats with the lack of physical activity in children and we are in a whole lot of trouble.

And, don't think an hour in the gym is going to fix this problem. While exercise is highly effective, its calorie burning ability is greatly exaggerated.

In a recent research study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, men who were asked to walk briskly for 15 minutes 14 times in a one day period (that's 3.5 hours of walking) only increased the calorie burning by 500 Calories. This is roughly the same amount of calories in one slice of Starbucks Banana loaf.

Exercise helps. Eating less works. Eating less and exercising is the magic combination to promote and maintain weight loss.

BP

PS- In another research study published this month it was suggested that lifestyle modification works better than traditional dieting. I couldn't agree more. I beleive on of the main reasons so many people are having long-term success with Eat Stop Eat is that it teaches you to change the way you think about eating. Learn more about Eat Stop Eat by visiting HERE.

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2 comments:

Adam Steer said...

Hey Brad,

I see you are still obsessed with that Starbucks Banana Loaf... ;-)

That is scary, but not surprising, information about what kids are eating. Good post.

Cheers,
Adam

Carrie said...

Right up my alley, with the childhood obesity post. Writing my thesis on it was scary and not too positive...