Childhood obesity
Taking steps to fight childhood obesity
This month, in our feature on tackling childhood obesity, Education Today hears from Living Streets, a UK-based charity which organises the annual Walk to School Week.
T
he ongoing battle with childhood obesity is familiar headline news with different solutions being offered up on a weekly basis, from smaller portion sizes, to reducing the cost of fruit and veg, through to the much publicised ‘sugar tax’. We know there’s a problem but what many people don’t know is how big that problem is. Currently, one in three children leaves primary school obese or overweight. This figure is even higher for those in deprived areas. That makes for depressing reading so it's refreshing to see attempts to find solutions. However, the growing obesity problem is a sad reflection of our unhealthy lifestyles as a whole and whilst diet is one aspect of this, so too is the declining levels of physical activity. It is critical that we don’t focus primarily on diet but tackle physical inactivity too if we are going to fully address the obesity crisis. The Commons Health Select Committee says there is "compelling evidence" that a sugar tax would reduce consumption of sugary drinks. Less widely reported is the Committee's recommendation, backed by health charities like the British Heart Foundation, to promote walking and other forms of active travel, as part of a series of measures to combat obesity.
At Living Streets, the UK charity for everyday
walking, we know that encouraging more children to walk to school is one of the best ways to start getting children more active. Walking to school is a free, accessible and easy way for children to build more exercise into their day. The Government agrees too. They’ve already committed to reversing the decline in children walking to school and have set a target to increase the number of primary-age children walking to school to 55 per cent by 2025. The Chief Medical Officer recommends that children are active for 60 minutes a day but only one fifth of 5–15 year olds are achieving this. Inactivity is making people unhealthy and unhappy; accounting for one in six deaths in the UK and costing the health service up to £10 billion a year. By encouraging families to swap four wheels for two feet we can start to make a change.
Walking offers the best chance to get people of all ages active. When children walk to school, not only do they contribute to their recommended daily activity levels but the parents and grandparents accompanying them also benefit. As well as helping the fight against childhood obesity, the walk to school offers a range of other benefits for children, families, schools and beyond.
Physically active children arrive at school more alert, ready to learn and achieve better grades than those who are driven. Parents who walk to school with their children tell us they value the social time it provides, free from the distractions
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of everyday life. A YouGov poll in 2015 found that children aged 8 to 11 who normally walk to school also enjoy the social elements, citing spending time with friends and family on the way to school as their favourite thing about the walk. Plus, a huge 23 per cent of peak-time traffic is made up from those on the school run, so the more children walking the less congestion and pollution there is on local roads making school gates a safer place.
Despite these many benefits, just 46 per cent of primary-aged children walk to school. This figure is in vast contrast to the 70 per cent who used to walk just a generation ago in the 1970s. For the first time, 2012 saw more children being driven to school than walking; a trend that has continued since. We need to start encouraging children to introduce walking into their everyday lives so that they can start enjoying the many health and social benefits walking brings and develop healthy habits for life.
Living Streets’ Walk to School campaign has been going for over 20 years. It supports over one million children, parents and teachers in 4,000 schools to walk more through national schemes and events, including Walk to School Week, making it one of the UK's leading behaviour change campaigns for young people. The campaign is proven to significantly increase walking rates; creating safer streets and happier, healthier pupils.
Walk to School Week is organised by Living Streets and takes place during National Walking
March 2016
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