Weighted toys may help kids at risk for diabetes shed pounds
In an effort to combat childhood obesity, one of the leading health problems leading to diabetes, researchers at Indiana State University in Terre Haute conducted a study to test the effects of having children play with heavier toys.
The study found that ten kids ages six to eight burned more calories and had higher heart and breathing rates when they moved 1.4 kilogram toy blocks instead of unweighted ones. (That’s just over three pounds to dumb Americans like me.)
“This is not going to solve the obesity problem,” said John Ozmun, a professor involved in the study. “But it has a potential to make a positive contribution.”
Some experts caution that lifting heavy objects at too early of an age can injure children and say that increasing activity levels is a better way to address the problem than heavier toys.
Obesity rates in children have tripled over the past 40 years. More than a third of American children are overweight and 17 percent considered obese, according to federal health officials.
Kara Tucker, youth development co-ordinator for the National Institute for Fitness and Sport in Indianapolis, uses oversized toys to capture the interest of children who might otherwise be less inclined to exercise.
“Giant soccer is one of my favourites,” she says. “If we told the kids, ‘Hey, you’re going to run up and down the court 20 times,’ they would completely be uninterested. Yet when we put a big soccer ball out there, they will just run forever. They’re having a great time.”
The study did not address the health concerns for the now morbidly obese teddy bears used in the study.
(via The Waterloo Record, Canada)
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