High school students aren’t getting enough exercise, yet they’re getting more than they should in sugary drinks and sodas, a study says.
About 1/3 of drink two or more of those sugary drinks, but only 15% get the recommended amount of aerobic exercise, which is an hour a day. This study was conducted by the CDC.
Kids are hitting the muscle strengthening activities, though, barely, at 51% three days a week. The problem is that’s doing very little to offset the amount of sugary drinks and lack of aerobic exercise!
“High school girls were far less likely than boys to meet the recommendation for either type of exercise. Just over 8% of girls in the survey reported getting 60 minutes of aerobic exercise per day, compared to 22% for boys.”
And even then, kids in higher grades were less likely to be putting in the work than the younger ones!
The problem here is that even though these findings are not good by any measure, they are just not surprising:
A second report from the same survey found that although water, milk, and 100% fruit juice are the most popular beverages among high schoolers, most students supplement these healthy drinks with soda and other sugary beverages.
Nearly one-quarter of students reported drinking at least one soda daily. In all, 63 percent of students consumed at least one soda, sports drink (like Gatorade), or other sweetened drink per day, and 33 percent drank two or more.
We understand that in most situations a soda or a sports drink just tastes better, but you have to get past that! Other, non-sweetened drinks can quench your thirst just as well! Drinking the other stuff will just add extra calories and sugar to your diet that you do not need. It really is one of the easiest changes you can make to your diet that will have a rather profound effect.
But don’t forget that hour of aerobic exercise!
We wonder what kinds of solutions there could be to getting high schoolers more active! Any thoughts??
[Image via AP Images.]