I really thought that all the issues surrounding kids and their relative
fatness had been covered. I really did. I was hoping they
had. After all, how many ways can you tell us that kids are fat
because of the junk they eat and the fact that they don't
exercise? But I was wrong. It turns out there is yet another study and it suggests that kids who live where there is a lawn or a park are thinner than kids who don't.
Here's
a recap of what the new study is all about: 7,334 children
between the ages of 3 and 18
were studied who lived in Marion County, Indiana., and it was
determined whether they were
overweight by calculating their body mass index (which we already know
is a suspicious number). They also looked at amounts of green
landscapes near each child's home as well as the relative proximity to
retail food establishments.
Exercise habits were not studied, which I think is a major failing, but
it was determined that kids living in more highly-populated areas
tended to be fatter than kids living around more green areas like parks
and lawns.
They
should have studied kids in Paris. The only fat people I ever saw
there were Americans, and everyone walks everywhere, and there aren't a
lot of parks but the ones there are sure get used from what I could
see, even in winter. As I see it, this is a social problem,
not an environmental one. It seems to me that people are looking
for answers in the wrong places (and spending an awful lot of money on
useless studies).
