American kids are among the world's least fit.
- Thread starter entremet
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Being from Estonia, I can tell you our cultures are very different despite sharing a border.
Healthy eating and exercise have been big topics here a few years as well on a national level, and portion sizes aren't anything near what they are in the States. Surprising, still. I've always heard from my friends with kids that PE classes are still shit at schools, and kids do stuff like the Cooper Test ( https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Cooper_test ) that I hated with passion when in school two decades ago. On the other hand, all kids seem train in at least one or two sports after school, so even when the rest of the time is spent behind screens, it's evened out?
Edit: Oh, and just in case - PE classes are mandatory, and you are being graded on how you do, and it affects your overall average grades etc.
Barajas_201
Member
Oh man, Mexico last place like always (except in corruption #1) 
entremet
Member
Not if you're in a poorer district.
Interesting, in Finland students get grades too but it doesn't affect the average score, which can in part decide where you will be accepted for secondary education.
Gordon Shumway
Banned
The reason Trump imports..
When I was in elementary school my parents didn't let me walk to school even though it was a 10 minute walk there. Cell phones were very expensive at the time so that was way out of the question and while I didn't live in an awful neighborhood, it wouldn't want to walk it alone at that age. My middle and high school I took a bus which picked up and dropped me off at the elementary school I went to and from there I would walk home or go to a friend's house.
Remembering back to elementary school, we barely had any recess. We did a lot in Kindergarten but that's mostly cause my Kindergarten teacher didn't teach us shit. I was mostly in the advanced and high level classes growing up so recess was definitely out of the picture. And just due to the size of my school it was hard anyway cause there was just so many kids there. Recess was more of a reward thanot something mandatory. So when we did have Recess (maybe once or twice a month) it was very special to us.
And even the PE special (which was only 30 minutes to begin with anyway) was taken away from my 4th and 5th grade class (along with Music special) in order for us to have extra math and reading reviews. Years later looking back at my elementary school the basketball courts are not in use anymore and most of the fields are gone now because they had to put more portables on the basketball courts and the fields so they could have more classes.
I was also in aftercare in elementary school so we did get to go outside for a while during that time. I was a fat, uncoordinated kid back then so I didn't really play any sports during that outside time. I do remember me and friends playing a lot of fake dragon Ball Z and hitting each other a lot and playing a lot of kick ball and Dodge ball. When it came to mandatory sports during after care like Basketball and Football I always got picked last. So because of aftercare when I got home was about 6:30-7 and pretty much I just relaxed until I had to go to bed (since they made us do homework during aftercare).
You can take what I say with a grain of salt cause every experience is going to be different but there's a huge lack of physical activity or even free time during the average student's day. And if you're not in PE in middle school or high school? You can just pretty much forget about going outside unless there's like a special project or something.
Charles Brandon
Member
Have to say I'm surprised the UK came mid-table. Thought we would be much worse than that
SirRattleBalls
Banned
Just in case anyone is interesting in knowing the full list
1. Tanzania (by fricken miles)
2. Iceland
3. Estonia
4. Norway
5. Japan
6. Denmark
7. Czech Republic
8. Finland
9. Cote d'lvoire
10. Morocco
11. France
12. Lithuania
13. Benin
14. Djibouti
15. Mauritius
16. Slovakia
17. Germany
18. Senegal
19. Canada
20. Turkey
21. UK
22. Poland
23. Suriname
24. Belgium
25. China
26. Sweden
27. Austria
28. Netherlands
29. Spain
30. South Africa
31. Switzerland
32. Uganda
33. Seychelles
34. Columbia
35. Australia
36. Hungary
37. Italy
38. Hong Kong
39. Chile
40. Argentina
41. Philippines
42. Greece
43. Portugal
44. Brazil
45. Cyprus
46. Republic of Korea
47. USA
48. Latvia
49. Peru
50. Mexico
Thanks, was looking for this list
Machine
Member
I think this plays a bigger role than people think. Not just in the reduced amount of unsupervised play but in basic things like going to school. When I was a kid, my school was about 1/2 mile away from our neighborhood. All the kids walked or rode their bikes to and from school. I currently live in a relatively safe, suburban neighborhood and most parents drive their kids the one or two blocks to school because they've become so paranoid about stranger danger. You drive by most K-12 schools and there are far fewer bikes chained to the bike racks in the front of the school than there were 20 years ago.
entremet
Member
Youth soccer?
SocksAndShoes
Banned
We beat Mexico though!
U-S-A! U-S-A!
U-S-A! U-S-A!
gutter_trash
Banned
longe school hours,
few phys ed hours,
parents work long hours and have fewer hours to interact with kids.
fear mentality of not letting kids play outside (when crime rates are at their lowest)
few phys ed hours,
parents work long hours and have fewer hours to interact with kids.
fear mentality of not letting kids play outside (when crime rates are at their lowest)
I was initially surprised as well but there are a lot of healthy eating and exercise initiatives in the uk aimed at young children. At least from my experience.
DragonSworne
Banned
I blame baby boomers.
sixteen-bit
Member
Thanks (Michelle) Obama
DiipuSurotu
Banned
Japanese kids ranking 5
Congrats to the three of them
Congrats to the three of them
I Wonder if all those corner stores have something to do with it. You can just walk a couple feet outside and most places will have a small store selling chips and other delicious snacks.
Dancing Queen
Banned
Love you.
Charles Brandon
Member
well, yeah but I'm sure you have youth sports in the US too
yup, there have been. I'm just surprised that something has actually worked for a change.
True
Pamplemousse
Member
Probably because parents can't let their kids play outside without getting CPS called on them
entremet
Member
We do but it's more the purview of middle class and up suburbanites.
Almost the opposite in places like Brazil.
Looking at what bman said above about how the US's schools have barely any breaks I'm not surprised. Unless something's drastically changed since I left we had/have at least an hour of free break time each day, and at the very very least the same amount of time in PE lessons each week.
shots fired
Poor diets tied with an increase of time spent working or travelling to and from work to prepare healthier and more balanced meals. Extra work and travel time with a lack of physical mobility helps to compound the issue. Add in an increase of corn syrup and sugar being added to pretty much any and all processed foods that are significantly cheaper, easier to make and are more calorie dense.
Charles Brandon
Member
Really? Well yes, in the UK all kids can play organised soccer if they want to regardless of income or social status. At least I think that is the case.
I think another issue is American kids don't really walk anywhere. Our infrastructure is built around driving to 99% of destinations, plus a recent fear of ever letting kids go out on their own, which also cuts down on kid's freedom to just go outside and be active in an unstructured way, really limits how much extended walking a kid will do.
Many of these other countries don't have nearly the same emphasis on automobiles and focus either entirely on walking as the main means of transportation or a strong combination of walking and public transportation, which often relies on walking from whatever train/subway/bus station to your destination.
Many of these other countries don't have nearly the same emphasis on automobiles and focus either entirely on walking as the main means of transportation or a strong combination of walking and public transportation, which often relies on walking from whatever train/subway/bus station to your destination.
old manatee
Banned
It specifically mentions aerobic fitness, which I think you can directly link to kids not being able to go outside alone anymore. When I was a kid the vast majority of my exercise came from me being able to wander outside and run around the woods or ride my bike whenever I wanted. I have never once in my entire life seen my parents exercise, so if I had to wait for their supervision to go out in the world I would have been in bad shape for sure.
Dancing Queen
Banned
Rationalization BS. How do you explain Japan?
Kids walk to school. You see 8 year olds walking around, take trains etc completely alone. Its a safer/percieved to be safer country.
Thats true. Still a bit surprising.
Yeah, the only time I was really able to do exercise without my parents' supervision outside of school was at sports teams at the YMCA. I wasn't allowed to play or ride my bike in the front yard or use the pool in the backyard unless someone could watch me.
efyu_lemonardo
May I have a cookie?
What about all the other countries?
Messofanego
Banned
Proteins like meat and fish requires cooking. Until parents take up cooking or there's a nationwide campaign to increase cooking skills like we've had over here in the UK happens, say goodbye to balanced meals.
R10Neymarfan
Member
And fast foods infiltrate schools. The healthy options aren't even healthy. Most meals back in high school were loaded with sugar and fat. Even more kids had an option to purchase more or just move to the snack bar to get their favorite fried foods everyday. PE is a joke, most just sit around and not even try and even then actual exercise was like 30min due to the schedule.
I do wonder since fitness and having a good body is so widely mainstream nowadays that we have an issue hmm....
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