Kids, go out and play

Our moms probably weren't thinking about our health when they shooed us out the door to play - they just wanted us out of their hair.

But most days, they didn't have to. If it was daytime, we were outside - unless we were forced indoors by bad weather or sunset or other forces beyond our control.

We prowled the neighborhood on our bikes, collecting teammates for games. We explored neighbors' yards and nearby fields, collected golf balls and sticks and rocks. Mostly, we just ran around. No game or idea was too stupid so long as we could find someone to go along with it.

We were lucky, I guess - our handful of TV stations and clunky Atari were pretty poor competition for the wide world.

Today, according to the National Institutes of Health, kids aged 8 to 18 in this country spend four hours watching TV or DVDs, an hour on the computer and 50 minutes playing video games.

More than half the kids in that age group say their parents don't have rules about how much TV they can watch. Only 20 percent said their family has limits that they enforce.

But health officials say limiting sedentary “screen time” plays an important role in the fight against childhood obesity - something Kevin Concannon, U.S. Department of Agriculture Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services, talked about when The Gazette caught up with him this week.

Certainly, schools can play a big role in fighting this growing problem. Some ideas Concannon discussed included integrating nutrition education throughout school curriculum, holding school nutritionists to higher expectations and giving food service workers better training.

Schools can help by stocking only healthy food in school vending machines and ridding a la carte lines of high-fat, high-calorie junk food.

Slow but sure, those changes are happening - Concannon told us a federal push to strengthen school nutritional requirements has been getting a lot of support. That's good news.

But physical activity is equally important to kids' health - and that's something schools have less control over. It's also where parents come in.

“We can't just hope that the world gets to be a better place,” Concannon told us. “We have to take some steps, create some channels to help make it a better place.” He was talking about school districts and about his department.

But it applies here, too. Parents can't leave it only up to schools to teach kids healthy habits. So kick those kids outside.

It's a beautiful day.

Comments: (319) 339-3157; jennifer.hemmingsen@gazcomm.com