Schools tackle childhood obesity a sit-up at a time

Weight-related diseases pose health epidemic in Canada

By Robert Barron, Daily News
Canada.com

The battle against childhood obesity continues in the Nanaimo-Ladysmith school district, three years after statistics revealed that one in four B.C. children aged two to 17 were overweight.

But efforts initiated by the province and adopted by the district -- including the Ministry of Education's mandatory requirement of 30 minutes of physical activity each day and the removal of junk food from school vending machines -- are starting to pay dividends, say those in Nanaimo who are leading the movement.

Jackie Poulin, principal of Forest Park Elementary School and the district's fitness guru, said such initiatives are teaching students to make healthy choices in their daily lives, but also cautions that "change doesn't happen in a day."

Brian Lennox, a teacher, coach and fitness advocate, said there is still a lot of work to be done to get students to adopt healthier habits.

"Recent reports are indicating that unless something is done now to deal with unhealthy lifestyles, incidences of Type 2 diabetes could bankrupt our health system by 2035," Lennox said.

"Schools are considered one of the main vehicles of change in society, including helping to form positive attitudes towards life and living, so if we could be more proactive in our approach to health in schools, it would go a long way towards a healthier society and reduced costs on the system down the road."

Brennen Savage and Keira Christensen, Grade 5 students at Forest Park, consider themselves to be both active and healthy, but they acknowledge that many of their friends live more sedentary lives with too much time spent playing video games and not eating enough nutritious foods.

"Some of my friends are heavier than they should be and many of them bring potato chips and chocolate bars with their lunches," Brennen said during a school break on Thursday.

"I play video games and I eat my share of chips and chocolate bars, but my family encourages healthy living and eating, although I don't like vegetables, so I think I'm pretty fit."

Physical fitness programs -- including the mandatory 30 minutes of daily activity -- are designed at the discretion of individual schools and teachers. At Forest Park, Poulin has had a number of her classes take part in a "boot camp" run by Nanaimo's Full On Fitness. The program is paid for by the school.

The program involves exercises like intensive running, skipping and pushups to improve overall fitness. Brennen and Keira think the program has improved their fitness.

"Some of the kids in my class asked why we had to go to boot camp in the beginning, but most learned to like it after they took part in it," Keira said.

"I don't know about other schools, but I think there's less overweight kids in Forest Park since I started school here."

With health enthusiast Poulin at its helm, Forest Park may be more aggressive than most schools in encouraging healthy lifestyles.

The school district pays Poulin for just half a day a week to promote health in district schools. It's a responsibility she takes on in addition to her full-time duties as a school principal.

She doesn't have much time to visit the district's 40 schools, but she regularly puts together attachments to school newsletters with health information for students and parents.

"Getting our students more active requires continuing education for everybody in the community, not just the kids," said Poulin, whose undergraduate degree is in physical education.

"Gains are being made and momentum is building as people understand the importance of physical fitness, but certainly lots more work needs to be done. It's an area that I'm passionate about and I believe a momentum is growing in society towards healthier living and it seems to be getting better all the time."

Lennox said the 30 minutes set aside for exercise in the schools each day is only effective if it's an intensive workout that adolescents require for optimum health, and it should be in conjunction with a rigorous physical education program.

"Physical education should be one of the most important components of our education system," he said.

"Students need the very minimum of 40 minutes to an hour of intensive physical activity, at least four days a week, as part of living healthy lives and this would have a huge impact on their lives down the road and lead to a healthier society, with fewer health costs."

Mike Munro, school district superintendent, said while no studies have been done to determine the success rates of the initiatives to promote health in schools, teachers tell him the overall impact has been positive.

"The research is clear, and common sense tells us as well, that daily activity and eating healthy foods is important for health, as well as being helpful with our students' efforts to attain success at school and in life," Munro said. "I believe we're making gains in the district in encouraging healthy living and we're seeing increases in students' physical strength, as well as their concentration levels as a result. But we must continue our efforts and improve them as we go."