Physical Activities More Important Than Diet For Healthy Kids

According to a study, for a kid to be healthy, physical activities are more important than what the child eats.

The proper weight of a child is the best indication whether he or she is healthy and a new study has found that it's not just food that has an impact on the weight of a child. According to the study, not food but frequent physical activities have the biggest impact on the weight of a child.

"Our four-year study of 734 otherwise healthy Australian children in the general community, aged between 8 and 12 years, found that the main difference between lean and overweight children was that lean children were more physically active," lead researcher professor Richard Telford from the ANU College of Medicine, Biology and Environment and the Clinical Trials Unit at The Canberra Hospital said in a report published in Medical Xpress. "Children with a higher proportion of body fat, even those considered obese, did not consume more kilojoules - they did not eat more fat, carbohydrate or sugar - than those who were lean. Indeed, our study found that leaner boys actually consumed more kilojoules over the four years of the study than overweight boys, but were much more physically active.

"The data also indicated that if a child became more active during the four years he or she became leaner. Alternatively, a child who became less active increased his or her body fat percent," he added. 

During the study, the physical activities and food intake were measured using instruments like pedometers and accelerometers. Telford added that the misreporting of food intake was also addressed during the course of this study by having parents and children answer surveys and questionnaires.

"General community strategies involving dietary intake and physical activity to combat childhood obesity may benefit by making physical activity the foremost focus of attention," he said.