If we compared the streets of our cities a few decades ago, when we were children, to those of now, I think we would immediately notice the absence of children today. Before, we played in the street, and we did it moving and not glued to the screens.
The sedentary lifestyle of children (and adults) nowadays causes obesity rates to increase alarmingly, and therefore different solutions are sought. The Ministry of Health will propose to the Ministry of Education that a daily hour of physical exercise and sport be implemented in Spanish schools.
But, if we continue looking through that window to the past, we would also see that those children of 20 or 30 years ago had lunch or snack snacks and few were those who ate buns or industrial donuts and canned juices.
By this I mean, I think it's great that you want to increase the hours of physical education at school (although it would not hurt to remember and rescue other subjects), but that the problem is much broader and that physical activity is not enough if adequate food is not added to it: it is a matter of balance.
The announcement of this intention was made by the Minister of Health during the closure of the VI NAOS Convention that has been held at the headquarters of the Ministry, after recalling the dramatic figures of childhood obesity in Spain: up to 45% of children aged six to nine years suffer from excess weight.
At present, depending on the level and the center, the physical exercise is usually between two and three hours per week. It is not known how, but the idea is to increase that horal number to at least five a week.
Ideally, it would be that the children continue to exercise on weekends, as a family, and that our cities were prepared for it. To do this, parents are the first to be aware of the importance of physical activity.
In the same way that we are the ones who should ask ourselves to what extent they eat healthy or if they spend too many hours in front of the screens, if we offer them alternatives ...
Not surprisingly, the family with their eating and physical habits has much to say when it comes to preventing obesity, something to which the health or community can also contribute, together with the school, as has been demonstrated in different studies.
Along with this measure, the minister has also advanced that they are working on a new regulation of food and beverage advertising aimed at children and young people, through the renewal of the PAOS code, which will be extended until age 16 and will also contemplate Internet restrictions.
And it is that the means to which we are exposed today are much more powerful and varied, and there are leisure or food options that paradoxically in our time of crisis, are successful even being more expensive than other cheaper and healthier options.
The point is that I don't think that one hour a day of physical education in schools is enough to tackle the problem of obesity, but can contribute to greater awareness and create good habits. Luckily, we already announced how in the same schools has stopped selling industrial pastries and soft drinks.
