|
Children may need over an hour and a half of moderate exercise per day to stay healthy. Children may need over an hour and a half of moderate exercise per day to stay healthy. That's the conclusion of research into 9- and 15-year-olds in Denmark, Estonia and Portugal. Using gadgets called accelerometers, the researchers could measure both the amount and intensity of daily exercise each child was doing. And they assessed a bundle of coronary risk factors together. Defining moderate exercise as the equivalent of walking at about 4km per hour, they found that children and adolescents - regardless of which country they lived in - who did under 90 minutes of moderate exercise per day were more likely to have a raised risk. Obesity patterns tended to follow these risk factors. An hour and a half a day sounds a lot until you realise that many of these kids were walking or cycling to school and the exercise they were getting looked as though it was part of each day's regular activity rather than an add-on like sport. Yet another reason to revive confidence in the safety of our streets so we can let our kids go to school without the aid of an automobile.
|
