With experts saying the life expectancy of Australian children will be shortened by two years if something is not done about the country's obesity epidemic, researchers in Britain are saying the one hour of moderate exercise a day recommended to children from health experts may not be enough to tackle the problem of childhood obesity.
The EarlyBird study by researchers from the Peninsula Medical School in Plymouth, followed the development of over 200 children in Plymouth born in 1995 and 1996 and found that when these children were aged between five and eight, 42% of boys and only 11% of girls met the government recommended daily exercise level of one hour of moderate exercise.
The study also found that exercise alone had no positive effect on weight control over time but when compared with peers who took less exercise, children who met the recommended activity levels fared better for blood pressure, cholesterol, triglycerides and insulin resistance, which is a recognised precursor to type 2 diabetes later in life.
The researchers say this does not mean that exercise has no health benefits for children but improving children's diets, is likely to have a greater impact on their overall health and weight.
The researchers worked with 212 children from 54 schools in Plymouth and followed them for four years - once each year the children were tested by wearing small monitors that recorded their exercise levels - and the amount of physical activity achieved by children each day varied considerably - some only managed 10 minutes of moderate exercise, while others went over 90 minutes.
Dr. Brad Metcalf who led the study says the results for girls are in line with past research that shows that young girls do not exercise as much as boys but some children are more naturally active than others and this might explain why there is such a marked difference between boys and girls.
Dr. Metcalf says at present it is unclear whether exercise guidelines should be adjusted for this difference, or whether girls should be encouraged to exercise more.
The Australian National Preventative Health Task force in a preliminary report says in the 15 years, from 1990 to 2005, the number of overweight Australian adults soared by a staggering 2.8 million and currently, almost one quarter of children are overweight or obese.