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Congratulations to Mesa County on another successful Outdoor Heritage Day. It is a wonderful example of how a community can help encourage the love of outdoors in our children. I understand that more than 30 organizations participated in the celebration, which drew 1700 people for a day of all kinds of outdoor activities. The Division of Wildlife gave away more than 700 fishing rods to future fishermen/women. And the day prior, five busloads of elementary school children were sworn in as Junior Rangers.
There are many recent studies that show the benefits of introducing our kids to playing outdoors. Here are a couple of statistics that caught my attention.
The amount of time kids spend in the outdoors has been cut in half over the last 20 years, while the obesity rates have doubled. Nationally, children between the ages of 8 -18 spend six and a half hours a day connected to some type of electronic device. We don’t have to take away all our children’s high-tech toys, but balance in their daily lives is important.
The good news is that Colorado has a many organizations dedicated to keeping our kids healthy, safe and connected to the outdoors. Today, my office will hold the first of several forums around the state in Grand Junction to highlight what Colorado communities are already doing to encourage children’s connection to nature and to learn how we can give more children the opportunity to go outside to watch clouds or to play ball.
We hope to learn from Mesa County’s experience with Outdoor Heritage Day and share this information with other parts of the state. Thanks to the event’s success, you have set an example for the state in how to pass a love of the outdoors on to the next generation.
LT. GOV. BARBARA O’BRIEN
Denver
3 Responses to “Being outdoors makes kids healthy”
Posted May 4th, 2009 at 12:47 am Login to Send PM Report this comment
let us just hope this is the start to the end of 300 pound teenagers in america, of course making children get off the butts and getting them away from their video games might become unconstitutional if some whacky loon of a lawyer gets his/her way
Posted May 4th, 2009 at 7:48 am Login to Send PM Report this comment
The single biggest contributor to our epidemic of childhood obesity is their consumption of our “industrial” diet. Huge portions of nutritionally inert processed foods laden with trans-fats and sweeteners, coupled with a sedentary lifestyle have created two generations of children who, according to Dr. David Katz of Yale University, will have a shorter lifespan than their parents.
In fact, 70% of our 12 year old kids have various stages of atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries). Luckily, there is a simple solution. The American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society agree that a diet rich in whole foods, specifically fruit and vegetables, actually reduces our risk of developing these diseases.
Children who eat a healthy diet are increasingly rare. It is our responsibility as parents to change that dynamic. It is simple: Feed your kids a diet full of fresh vegetables and whole foods, disallow the fast food, get them off the couch, and the results will amaze you.
Posted May 4th, 2009 at 8:53 am Login to Send PM Report this comment
Duke,
Good talking points for sure. It seems our society has to be fast and conveneint for everything, to our demise our diets follow the same road which lead to everything you stated. I am sure a lot of people will know the link to the video below, every time I watch it I am still amazed…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7Tv_mihMBA
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