World Health Organisation Says Video Games Major Culprit For Obesity
Written by Jamie Stowe | Saturday, 10 April 2010 | There are 0 comments
not getting enough exercise was largely to blame
A new World Health Organization study has claimed that video games are a major reason why the statistics for childhood obesity are on the rise. They said that their report showed that 1/3 of children could now be classified as obese and that not getting enough exercise was largely to blame. They said that only around 1/4 of boys were getting enough exercise and that in the case of girls this figure was only fifteen percent.
The report also mentioned increasing television and computer usage as being part of the problem and highlighted that obesity related to sedentary lifestyles in children was not only a problem in rich countries but was also becoming more apparent in poorer nations too.
At Ukmedix News we see many of these studies every month which claim to have found the exact reason why children and adults are getting more overweight. What researchers often forget is that it is the whole range of different factors which contribute to obesity and that they all need to be dealt with. For example children who watch a lot of television are bombarded with advertisements for fast food and this means that their sedentary lifestyles are also linked to unhealthy food habits.
There is nothing really you can do about preventing children from using video games except by educating their parents into the need for regular exercise. There's nothing wrong with children using video games for an hour or two every day provided that they spend the same amount of time playing games that require physical exertion.
Some people also argue that obese children tend to favour video games because their weight prevents them from enjoying outdoor activities like playing football and therefore while the video games compound the problem they cannot be blamed as the original cause of it.
In recent years the Nintendo Wii video games which require a lot of physical exertion and activity have been promoted as a healthy alternative to regular video gaming.
