School rules combat obesity

State health and education officials have encouraged schools to provide more time for physical activity in students’ schedules in an effort to prevent childhood obesity.

The Move More School Standards were announced Friday and include recommendations that students should receive no less than 90 minutes of physical education per week and 30 minutes of physical activity per day.

The initiative is a joint effort between the N.C. Division of Public Health, the N.C. Department of Public Instruction and the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service.

Joyce Harp, professor of nutrition and medicine at UNC, said obesity, a major health problem facing Americans, can place individuals at higher risk to diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, arthritis and even sudden death.

And childhood obesity is becoming increasingly common across the country and the state.

“North Carolina children are more overweight on average than their national peers,” said Sheree Vodicka, Heavy Weight Initiative Coordinator for the N.C. Division of Public Health.

She said more than one in five N.C. children between the ages of five and 11 are now overweight.

“One reason is that kids these days are more sedentary,” Vodicka said, adding that more time is spent playing video games than playing outdoors.

Easier access to unhealthy foods also is to blame, she said.

Harp said preventing obesity at an early age is critical to ensuring that children stay healthy as they grow older.

“Once a child or adult becomes obese, it is very hard to lose the weight,” she said.

There is only a 15-percent chance that an obese individual through dieting and regular exercise will be able to lose the weight and keep it off, Harp said.

At Carrboro Elementary School, children participate in 30 minutes of physical education class three days per week, with about 20 to 25 minutes of recess on the other days, said the school's principal Ibis Núñez.

This is slightly short of the minimum physical activity time recommended by the “Move More” initiative, but it can be difficult fitting more into the school day.

“The state dictates how many instructional minutes have to occur,” Núñez said. The remaining time must be divided between recess, lunch and other activities.

But the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City school system has taken the extra step of creating a policy banning the sale of unhealthy foods such as chips, sodas and sugary snacks on campus, she said.

Other recommendations of “Move More” include reducing elementary school physical education class sizes to one teacher for every 25 students, ensuring that instructors have the proper qualifications and providing adequate facilities.

“Lots where students used to have recess are now filled with mobile trailers,” Vodicka said.

“Physical education has taken a back seat to academics.”

 

Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.