By Greg Higgins

National Health and Fitness Day looks to take a bite out of childhood obesity

Jun 3, 2016 | 7:00 PM

The Heart and Stroke Foundation is campaigning to promote healthy living by hosting National Health and Fitness Day on Saturday, June 4 and staff at the CUplex in North Battleford plan to take part as well.

“We’ll be doing a lot of free activities to keep people active and physical,” Program Coordinator Candace Dustan said.

Some of the featured activities include “aquasize” from 9 to 10 a.m., roller skating and ice skating all day, track time from 10 a.m. until noon and turf time from 12 to 3 p.m.

“People think that heart and stroke can only affect older people but it can affect younger people as well. It’s important to start young,” Dustan said.

According to a 2014 Heart and Stroke Foundation report, 31 per cent of Canadian children and youth are either overweight or obese. This ranks Canada as sixth in the world for childhood obesity.

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With the weather getting nicer and kids finishing school they might be more inclined to spend time on the couch in front of a screen instead of outside playing.

“Some of the most important things to think about are active transportation, active play and active family time,” Tova Dybvig, manager of health promotions for the Heart and Stroke Foundation in Saskatchewan, said.

“If there is an opportunity to walk or bike to and from somewhere rather than drive (or) getting outside to play instead of sitting on the computer. During family time, think of some activities that could be more physical,” she said.

According to the Heart and Stroke Foundation roughly 95 per cent of children and youth don’t get the recommended 60 minutes of daily physical exercise.

“It’s very important at a young age to create healthy habits because if you have negative habits in your childhood they usually continue on into your adult life,” Dybvig said. “Obese people have an increased risk for diabetes, heart health, stroke and cancer.”

Heart and Stroke Foundation staff want the community to pull together to make an effort to stop obesity and encourage everyone to play a role in childhood health.

Just getting youth active isn’t enough according to Dybvig. The foundation is also targeting children’s sugar consumption and ensuring diets are balanced.

Administrators with the foundation are pushing “Healthy Public Policy” which looks to implement a manufacturer’s levy on sugary drinks, impose regulations to limit the amount of trans fats in food. The foundation also wants to restrict companies from marketing unhealthy foods and beverages to kids.

Sometimes it isn’t a matter of effort to get kids active or on a proper diet. There are parents who simply can’t afford to put their kids in sports. That’s where programs like KidSport come in.

“We help less fortunate kids participate in organized sports,” David Schell, co-chair of KidSport Battlefords, said. “Kids sit around and play a lot of video games. Sometimes it’s that their families don’t have the money to put them in sports, so we help them out.”

KidSport puts roughly 200 underprivileged kids into organized sports per year in the Battlefords. Last year they raised $55,000 to help kids get active whose families otherwise couldn’t afford to.

ghiggins@jpbg.ca

@realgreghiggins