Youth Obesity

One of the most alarming trends in our country is Youth Obesity—a trend that has significant impact beyond just the weight of our community. Research is clear that poor nutrition and physical inactivity has broad reaching consequences. America’s childhood obesity rates have tripled in the last 30 years, exposing 9 million kids to a variety of potential long-term health consequences. Experts are concerned that this will be the first generation of American children who live sicker and die younger than the previous generation.

In every crisis, there are opportunities. At the Y of Central Maryland, we believe the opportunities in this crisis extend well beyond meeting the need for properly planned and implemented weight control programs. Research is clear that those who lead a healthy active lifestyle not only have lower incidence of health related diseases and disorders but are more productive in all aspects of their life. Additionally, healthy, physically active students actually perform better academically. Unfortunately, in an attempt to improve academic test scores, most school districts have dramatically limited physical education opportunities for students. Not only has this had devastating consequences from a health perspective, but from an academic perspective as well. One study done at Virginia Tech showed that cutting gym class and allocating more time to math, science and reading did not improve test scores. Yet research performed by the California Department of Education has consistently shown that students with higher fitness scores also have higher academic test scores.

In order to meet this need within our society, we offer a wide variety of programs for youth—from Youth Cardio and Teen Strength Training programs to Healthy Kids Day, Karate and Cheerleading, our objective is to find ways to help kids (and their families) get excited, and committed to a healthy active lifestyle. One such program which we’ve developed in conjunction with CareFirst and the Healthways Foundation, has shown a 32% weighted average improvement on six measures of fitness for enrolled children. This kind of holistic approach to overall well-being offers a major weapon in the fight against childhood obesity. This epidemic is symptomatic of other challenges we face as a community. Just as the medical community has discovered the benefits of treating the person vs. just the disease, the same logic holds true with the obesity epidemic.

Posted by Bob Brosmer, Chief Operating Officer, Y of Central Maryland