Comments
Wagamaga OP t1_j9o34oo wrote
From 2011 to 2018, Slovenia enacted a nationwide program named Healthy Lifestyle that added two to three additional physical education classes per week for students in more than 200 schools in the country. The researchers found that students who participated in the additional classes had a larger reduction in BMI than nonparticipants, and the BMI decrease grew as students participated in the intervention for a longer time.
“There are two important messages,” Gregor Starc, PhD, assistant professor in the faculty of sport at University of Ljubljana in Slovenia, told Healio. “The first one is that school-based interventions to increase physical activity can be effective in reducing obesity prevalence, but such interventions should be longer than two years. The second — in our regard the more important message — is that introducing one hour of high-quality school physical education every day could reverse the childhood obesity epidemic.”
Researchers analyzed findings from Healthy Lifestyle, a program that allocated two additional physical education classes per week for students in grades one to six and three additional classes for students in grades seven to nine. The additional classes meant that participants attended a physical education class during every school day. There were 216 schools in Slovenia that opted to participate in the program. All students at participating schools were invited to take part in the intervention as an elective course. Height, weight and triceps skinfold measurements were obtained from the Slovenian national fitness surveillance system. Children in the 85th to 94th percentile for age- and sex-specific BMI were considered to have overweight, and those in the 95th percentile or higher were defined as having obesity. Researchers compared data from intervention participants with a control group of children who attended participating schools but did not take part in the intervention.
insaneintheblain t1_j9o4acq wrote
Not forcing kids to sit down for 8 hours a day would help too
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kermitpolice t1_j9oee1r wrote
tLDR: exercise reduces obesity
heeywewantsomenewday t1_j9of7m6 wrote
I'm in education and the lads diagnosed with ADHD or who generally struggle doing long hours in the classroom do so much better when they have daily outdoor time (outdoor work) and exercise time. It improves their in class work.
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Rens_kitty_litter t1_j9oja74 wrote
It's like people forget what it's like to have been a kid. Boundless energy that needs an outlet. It's great that studies are revealing what, I'm hoping, is common-sense knowledge. Kids need to run around. For BMI purposes, yes, but to also quiet the mind.
EDIT: change "...coming sense..." to "...common-sense..."; add"the" btwn "quiet" and "mind."
wwarnout t1_j9ojt2b wrote
Next, the GOP will find an excuse to further limit physical activity, probably because it's "work" (or other totally meaningless reason).
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kermitpolice t1_j9okt0w wrote
I am completely certain without any doubt that regular exercise has a wide range of benefits on the development, health and wellbeing of a child.
Vakulum t1_j9omsyn wrote
Also for adults. I need my office to provide staff with a playground and monkey bars as well . Best productivity would be higher and people missing work due back pain and other health problems would reduce.
Adult life sucks.
roccmyworld t1_j9onz6s wrote
In this comment: Redditor restates title of original post in new and uninteresting way
knit3purl3 t1_j9ooys4 wrote
You think you could tell that to my kid's school who cancels half a year of outdoor recess for hunting season reasons and then makes sport out of canceling the rest for punishment?
They've really adopted a "beatings will continue until morale improves" approach with a bunch of 5-8yos who are going stir crazy now after 4 months trapped indoors and they keep taking away every recess that could be outside when we get randomly warm days.
ItCanAlwaysGetWorse t1_j9oq1n9 wrote
there's this little fact that has stuck with me:
A "Gym" (short for Gymnasium) in english refers to a place where you physically work out.
A Gymnasium in german is a school.
"Gymnasium" is latin and comes from the greek Gymnásion, which is a place where they did both: sports and learning (mostly sports though, and they did it naked for some reason).
I think the ancient greeks were already onto something there, physical and mental health/performance might be linked. Maybe that's what "Mens sana in corpore sano" (a healthy mind in a healthy body) refers to.
I think regular sports in school is important for more than just preventing obesity.
adeadlobster t1_j9oq3pk wrote
Oh would you look at that? Regular exercise is good for kids
I wonder what marvelous news they'll have about staying hydrated or getting sleep
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Stranger2306 t1_j9osy0z wrote
Schools began reducing gym time and fine arts time to trying to improve the all important math and reading scores. Opportunity cost for everything.
whisky_in_your_water t1_j9ot1sc wrote
Yup, our kids are often better behaved in the summer, and I think it's largely because they're able to spend more time outside.
teeth_lurk_beneath t1_j9otvwf wrote
Until they became Christians and the gymnasium and fitness were seen as vain things. I believe that's what happened in Constantinople at least.
your______here t1_j9ou80f wrote
As if the Democrats won't find this study (and the idea of physical activity) fatphobic first.
hapianman t1_j9ouv3r wrote
Would be amazing to have a 90 minute lunch so I could workout, shower, eat halfway through the day. I would be incredibly productive
heeywewantsomenewday t1_j9ov9ts wrote
It doesn't stop there. all green spaces in our local town are being built on pushing nature further and further to the outskirts, then teens get lambasted for hanging round the streets whilst also being told to get off the xbox at home. Can't win.
Post covid people should be encouraged to get out as much as possible, mental health is such a crisis right now and physical health and nature plays a part in that
StrayMoggie t1_j9ovn97 wrote
But aren't the reading and math scores still abysmal?
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reddituser567853 t1_j9oxp50 wrote
I wouldn't mind a nap time as well
Raven123x t1_j9oy2i6 wrote
Try rock climbing!
Stranger2306 t1_j9oybwu wrote
Oh yeah. And that's a long discussion.
But I'd def argue that "killing and drilling" math by hurting overall variety in curriculum is causing more harm than good.
WanderingPickles t1_j9oze7h wrote
It wasn’t so much that it was vanity as it was the legacy of games being a pagan religious activity. We forget that the ancient games were first and foremost religious festivals that incorporated ritualized combat (all of the ancient Olympic events were first and foremost combat skills - not that hand-to-hand-combat-ballroom-dancing doesn’t have a certain appeal in theory…).
It is true that as the empire turned away from paganism it eschewed various aspects of civic and private life that were incompatible with the Christian ethical/moral construct. Remember, the festivals were not some sort of neutral, secular, agnostic affairs. They were first and foremost acts of religious devotion and expressions of faith. And since Christianity (and Judaism for that matter) has a pretty strict prohibition about worshipping other gods, it all had to go.
Thus we see the end of gladiators fighting to the death, the large games (Olympian, Delphian, etc.) and a wide range of other activities, events and festivals. The ancient philosophic schools also declined as society morphed and changed; they were replaced by other schools and institutions more in line with the contemporary mores of the period.
As the gymnasiums were a fusion of the pagan philosophical tradition and the pagan religious athletic tradition, it faded as well. I am very interested to learn about how that particular area of interest evolved though. It isn’t as though athletes suddenly disappeared or that fitness and martial prowess went up in smoke. Like mosaicists, sculptors, etc. who used their skills & interests to praise the pagan gods and the Christian God, I am sure athletes found another similar outlet. And I don’t know about it.
There has been some interesting work around the decline of the large public bath. The latest thinking being that the public bath declined primarily as the result of environmental and economic factors. Baths consumed vast amounts of water and fuel (to heat the water). This cost vast amounts of money. Throw in the persistence of ideas around virtue and vice (Christian frowning on men and women being naked/bathing in each others company was not new or novel in any way) and presto, end of the large public baths.
Chinabotv2 t1_j9ozh7q wrote
I had no friends as a kid and it didn’t help that during the summer, I’d end up not doing much exercise besides sweating and maybe a game of horse with my dad if he was free
teeth_lurk_beneath t1_j9p02m6 wrote
Thank you so much for the response. It was very interesting, and I learned a lot from you. Not just new facts, but new strings to tug on too. I hope you have a great day!
schwoooo t1_j9p0ac6 wrote
When I started kindergarten we had PE every day plus recess. In third grade they changed it to every other day. We hated the change.
StrayMoggie t1_j9p0yzs wrote
It feels that the system is trying so hard to improve math scores that they change the teaching method every few years.
belizeanheat t1_j9p1oi1 wrote
Luckily no school does that
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kkngs t1_j9p3otl wrote
My kid has ADHD and his teachers keep punishing him for not getting work done by taking away recess. I can’t seem to get it through to them that it’s counterproductive.
dr-freddy-112 t1_j9p4314 wrote
This was definitely true for me and is still true to this day.
I'm always more productive at work when I have gotten a good workout in that day. Sometimes I'll get stuck on a coding or debugging problem, go to the gym, and then come back and figure out the answer instantly after having sat at my desk for several hours prior with no progress.
throwaway198990066 t1_j9p49le wrote
Studies like this are important for policymakers to see. If they really always believed that regular exercise was important enough, they’d have policies set that encourage it in public schools, instead of policies that pressure teachers to skip recess and teach kids how to pass standardized tests, for fear of budget cuts.
Given the cost of obesity (in terms of Medicare and Medicaid expenditures), this study might finally cause policy changes that allow schools to prioritize recess and PE.
InTheEndEntropyWins t1_j9p4e5a wrote
There is a meme that you can't out train a bad diet. In terms of calories in/out it makes sense.
While diet's are best in the short term in terms of losing weight, in the long term diets very rarely work. In the long term the only people who lose weight diet and exercise.
InTheEndEntropyWins t1_j9p4lmp wrote
You need to exercise for your brain to work properly. So the reason for bad reading and maths scores is partly due to not enough exercise.
10000Didgeridoos t1_j9p4uwb wrote
School as it currently exists is batshit. I was able to sit still and pay attention for hours on end, but many kids are not as lucky as me in that aspect and cannot do that. I seriously think that many kids are not dumb and get bad grades largely because they do not learn effectively while having to try to sit in a chair listening to someone talk for 45 minutes to an hour and a half at time. School only provides one, archaic method of teaching and learning and then treats the kids who don't fit that system like they are hopelessly stupid or unmotivated.
I was busier day to day in grade school than I was in college or working an adult job after it. Life shouldn't be this way. School for 7 hours, then maybe sports or band or whatever practices someone does, then like 4 to 5 hours of homework when you get home. It's a ridiculous grind.
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10000Didgeridoos t1_j9p6irs wrote
And have this in a way that isn't adding 90 minutes to a work day, but rather keeping the work load the same with time to unwind and recharge midday.
InTheEndEntropyWins t1_j9p7k4u wrote
I do wonder if ADHD for many is just a good normal natural condition, but it just doesn't work well in such an unnatural modern society.
10000Didgeridoos t1_j9p7nmz wrote
They do after like 10th grade here. No more gym class/PE after 10th grade, and 11th and 12th are just all lecture after lecture.
Recess is killed off by middle school.
We had a big group of friends in 11th and 12th grade that would go outside and play football, ultimate frisbee, and basketball during the 25 minute study hall period we had because our teachers were cool and didn't care. That little bit of exercise and mental unwinding was such a great way to break up the day and get ready for 3 more classes in the afternoon. It's a shame that schools don't even give an official option to have an exercise period like that when students finish with PE. Basically recess for teenagers.
We had a 4 team league going with kids from the Spanish class, Latin class, band, and chemistry class that all were at the end of the same hallway and therefore had the same lunch and study hall times. I'd bet with all the shootings over the last 15 years that kids aren't even allowed outside at all anymore like that.
Palchez t1_j9p7rmf wrote
I have to work out everyday or I become a total jerk. I look forward to it all morning and then it resets my vibes for the rest of the afternoon.
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knit3purl3 t1_j9p9mkl wrote
The same thing happens to my son too! I didn't worry so much for the months that it's indoor recess because he's basically swapping the time that he colors. But now that it's occasionally outdoors, he's being forced to sit with a clipboard on a curb while the rest of the kids actively play.
knit3purl3 t1_j9p9qww wrote
laughs in once a week, indoors only, for only 35min
knit3purl3 t1_j9pdgcc wrote
I recently realized that we're basically training people from the age of 5 to accept the capitalistic hellscape for the abusive situation it is. No wonder people are okay with wage theft and being expected to respond to work e-mails 24/7--from the age of 5, they were told that breaks aren't really mandatory and can be taken away at the whim of an authority, forced to adhere to BS rules even at lunchtime, expected to take work home with them, etc.
Adults have federal laws that should protect their lunch and breaks. School children do not. A teacher can decide to take away a child's break (recess) on a whim or they simply "age out" of having a break entirely. Your employer can't force you to eat lunch with your workplace bully every single day (hostile work environment), but teachers can.
So is it any surprise that adults now kowtow to abusive work conditions?
Mentalfloss1 t1_j9pelxn wrote
There were zero overweight kids in my neighborhood in the 1950s. There were around 30 of us. We played outdoors nearly every day. In my classes at school there was one overweight boy.
foot7221 t1_j9penpf wrote
Do kids even run the mile anymore? I remember in middle school and high school we all had to run or at least attempt a mile run every so often.
adeadlobster t1_j9pfptf wrote
Pretty much we have to go as slow as the slowest person, and our slowest people also happen to be running our country
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chop1125 t1_j9pi5f6 wrote
Before "No Child Left Behind," a lot of schools in the US had daily PE classes for kids in K-8. In a lot of schools, these classes are no longer daily classes. They are considered specials and they happen every other day. The same thing happened to music and art classes.
Aethaira t1_j9pptyu wrote
The people in charge of what kids spend most of their time doing should have a better understanding of what is healthy for their bodies and minds, this kind of stuff is disgraceful
ltong1009 t1_j9pr843 wrote
If we cared, PE would be everyday. Extend the school if you have to. The current PE requirements are a joke.
IMakeStuffUppp t1_j9przka wrote
We are taught to take tests.
Everything is to prepare for a test. State/National.
NWBoomer t1_j9psuhz wrote
This harkens back to the 1960s when I was in school; then president Kennedy's administration came out with The President's Council on Physical Fitness. PE class became a requirement. I don't know if similar studies to this one were done at the time to measure whether this had an effect on childhood obesity.
roll_left_420 t1_j9ptapn wrote
This is true of many mental “disorders” in modern society.
In fact, an entire movement of people who identify/diagnosed as Autistic, ADHD, Dyslexic and a few other conditions call themselves “Neurodivergent” to indicate that there’s nothing “disordered” about them, their brain is just different than average.
Like - there is nothing wrong with kids who need to move/fidget to think, but teachers/parents view it as a distraction and punish the kids. Causing them to mask symptoms leading to serious anxiety and depression for ADHD youth.
Depression makes it even harder to focus than before, and thus the ADHD shame spiral.
More frequent breaks and outside time separate from PE / recess would’ve helped me dramatically as a kid with “undiagnosed” ADHD (my parents and teachers knew something was up but ADHD wasn’t considered a real thing where I grew up).
roll_left_420 t1_j9ptfdh wrote
Same!! I go for a walk to grab a coffee or smoothie and on my way back I always figure it out out of the blue
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Phoenixbrew t1_j9pviz5 wrote
That's interesting, any sources you can recommend to read more about it?
No-Media1524 t1_j9pvj16 wrote
So making sedentary chubby kids run caused them to get fit again. What a mind blowing study.
insaneintheblain t1_j9pw42d wrote
Every school does that. Have you never sat down for class?
_m0nk_ t1_j9pw7go wrote
Science and autism go hand and hand.
_m0nk_ t1_j9pwc2m wrote
It’s not just kids, adults need to run around too
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Jethris t1_j9px1mx wrote
I am old, but we did have to do the 12 minute run (as many laps as you could). PE Instructor didn't believe me when I ran 2 miles in 12 minutes (6 minute mile wasn't hard for 14 year old Jethris).
midclassblues t1_j9px2dx wrote
Wow, it took a 3 year scientific study for that. Next, maybe they can study if suddenly being alone in your house for a year can cause depression.
philmarcracken t1_j9q180d wrote
You can't outrun a bad diet. Looking at their BMI table from control to intervention, the drop is 'there' but almost meaningless.
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ChrysMYO t1_j9q6m6s wrote
Yeah, remember walking my ex's first grader to class. 15 min away. Her age, I could walk the same distance to school. But her school is on an insanely busy street. And every 5 steps is a drive way to allow cars to drive from the main st into the shopping center that straddles the side walk we'd walk home on.
Getting to and from school on the calmest, nicest day was still so car focused and we were the ones walking. It reminded me when I was her age, the less than 15 min walk from school would turn into a 45 min pre-homework play time on the way back home.
Its simply impossible for them. These cars dominate everything.
bannedPosts t1_j9q7l12 wrote
Reduces obesity, lessens symptoms of ADHD, reduces depression, reduces anxiety, increases coordination, increases attention, blah, blah, blah. --sigh
kermitpolice t1_j9q7lnt wrote
I definitely agree with that. But when it comes to controllable factors for a school, exercise is a helpful contributor. Food education in the states is wildly inept.
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christpunchers t1_j9qb6z4 wrote
Bad diet, no exercise < bad diet, some exercise < good diet, no exercise< good diet, some exercise < bad diet, lots of exercise < good diet, lots of exercise
pupperonan t1_j9qcdyo wrote
MONTHS of indoor recess? Excuse me, what? As a Minnesotan that sounds insane to me. We had outdoor recess all year, even in the snow, unless there was freezing rain or frostbite-inducing wind chills. We brought snow pants and boots.
Do they at least get indoor recess in a gym? Or do they have to go back to sitting at their desks? Oh these poor children…
MEMENARDO_DANK_VINCI t1_j9qd4nk wrote
We all need to run around to quiet the mind.
I’m not yet a doctor, but I’m fairly sure we’ll find that inflammation is necessary for the body to function correctly and exercise is a way for us to push that inflammation into areas that we want to be rebuilding rather than where our brain says so
Amerimoto t1_j9qe4cl wrote
Alright so I’m American, where does physical education for kids not be daily?
metzbb t1_j9qe9za wrote
This doesn't seem like it should have took a study to figure out. Why do we need studies for common sense outcomes?
nillerwafer t1_j9qh4tf wrote
It’s almost like moving around more burns calories and sitting around all day doesn’t, whoda thought huh?
knit3purl3 t1_j9qhniu wrote
In the classroom. So coloring, building blocks, etc. Quiet, creative play.
Apparently some dumb hick hunters were shooting guns too close to the school so they have no outdoor recess during active hunting seasons now. And then the weather is too cold.
dr-freddy-112 t1_j9qibcx wrote
You can until a certain age. After a while the contents of the food you're eating catch up with you in the form of health problems, regardless of activity levels or body fat percentage.
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DamonFields t1_j9qiws3 wrote
When I was in school, PE was mandatory. In later years it became optional, so those who needed it the most avoided it. Freedumb.0
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waldrop02 t1_j9r6txg wrote
Because “common sense” isn’t always accurate and can vary wildly like between cultures. One example is the idea that same-sex parents (especially two men) would “obviously” be worse parents than a man and a woman. Where I grew up, this would be common sense, but where I live now, you’d get ridiculed for expressing that idea. The literature generally finds that same-sex couples’ children tend to have better outcomes, due to fewer “happy accidents” for them and the general need to have a higher income to get approval for adoption or to support a surrogacy.
Studies also help you identify what factors can make a statement more or less accurate. For example, with this study, it would be interesting to see how the diets compare between Slovenia and wealthier western countries. I’d imagine students with higher proportions of hyper-processed food in their diets would see less of a decrease in weight.
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waldrop02 t1_j9r77i8 wrote
My middle school only had PE 2-3 times a week, and my high school only required it once across eight semesters.
waldrop02 t1_j9r7g09 wrote
I’d generally say that Dems are the ones who will point to the inclusion or lack of a gym class in schools as exactly the kinds of systemic factors that make weight loss or gain not the individual’s responsibility.
mtcwby t1_j9r9ys6 wrote
They used to run our asses off in the 70's and 80's. Every single school day. I used to hate it because we couldn't afford very padded shoes and it could be painful.
Busterlimes t1_j9rbfap wrote
Wait, when did kids stop having gym class every day?
apcolleen t1_j9rbhwz wrote
We had gym class about once or twice a month in Elementary school and the coach was out there yelling at us for being out of shape. We didn't even get recess the entire time I was there.
brokenwound t1_j9ri4q7 wrote
Physical excercise activity should be like lunch whether at work or school.
microagressed t1_j9rlrh7 wrote
Meanwhile, my kid's school used to mass punish the entire grade by denying recess and making them sit at the lunch tables with their heads down because the lunchroom was too noisy.
OSUJillyBean t1_j9rsla7 wrote
Excuse me but my fat ass needs to sit on the couch and binge some TV, tyvm!
(/s)
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Swimming-Mom t1_j9rwy9w wrote
It’s really not that bad. I sub and lower elementary kids really do very little seat work. Most teachers get that they need to move and they spend a ton of time up and moving.
No_Syrup5607 t1_j9rxuuf wrote
Also, studies show, sunlight is more prominent during daylight hours...
Skylark7 t1_j9rz620 wrote
I work from home and do this. I am prone to errors after 5-6 hours at my desk so the break keeps my productivity up.
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BeenBadFeelingGood t1_j9sbq4z wrote
“No man has the right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.”
—socrates
kingp43x t1_j9se8m8 wrote
Wagamaga
10,410,542 post karma
267,226 comment karma
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HKei t1_j9snrfb wrote
There’s “diet” and there’s “diet”. When talking about short term, people think of restriction based diets that are kind of framed as challenges “do X for Y weeks to get Z”. The “diet” in this “meme” doesn’t refer to that; It simply refers to how you eat habitually. You’re not going to be healthy if you eat a full size cheesecake every day and vegetables pretty much never, even if you exercise a lot.
That said, most peoples diets aren’t quite as bad as that, whereas it’s extremely common for people to never exercise at all or so rarely that it hardly makes a dent.
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West_Flounder2840 t1_j9tfr4x wrote
Would love to see a study correlating intelligence with bmi
InTheEndEntropyWins t1_j9tgxts wrote
​
>There was a negative association between IQ and obesity in the UK population.
>
>https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/lim2.11
The main causal link between intelligence and bmi, is that less intelligent people are more likely to do things that make them overweight/obese.
edit: Here also showing a negative correlation between BMI and years of education.
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