As the Executive Director of the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition I am profoundly aware of the importance of making physical activity and nutrition accessible and affordable for all Americans, especially children. This is a multifaceted problem, and I’ll address several dimensions of this issue in this discussion. 

Availability of facilities that provide healthy, affordable food in our communities is a necessity.  If we do not have facilities within our neighborhoods where we can obtain fresh fruits and vegetables at affordable prices, then kids are going to continue to buy the Twinkies.  We’ve got to incent our retail establishments to be able to come into communities. I think we’ve seen success where we’ve put forth the effort in this area.

The school environment has a strong influence on whether physical activity and nutrition are accessible to children. Kids spend a good part of their days, weeks, and years in school.  We’ve got to continue pushing for policy change as it relates to physical education and school meals.

In many cases we are going in the wrong direction. Physical education is being cut out of schools, and it is so very important.  Many states are passing policies mandating physical activity. This time could be recess, before or after school programs, or physical education.  The unintended consequence  we are hearing from school officials is “we are doing our 15 minutes of recess and then kids are walking between classes, so we are just going to cut PE because nobody said we have to do PE.”  Physical education is a curricular area.  It is an educational area that should be taught by a certified physical education teacher.   It is not recess.

When advocates like myself come in and say we need more physical education, what we are really saying is we need more quality PE.

We know it can be done.  Often we hear that test scores are the priority and we only have so many minutes in each school day, but we have examples of schools that have made it a priority where kids are getting 30 minutes of physical education every day and their test scores are increasing.  For more information regarding this, reference the Centers for Disease Control and the National Association for Sport and Physical Education report on academics and physical education. There is an increasing body of research that shows definitively that kids who are physically active perform better academically. It can decrease their delinquency and behavioral issues, as well as help them concentrate so they tend to perform better on tests.

Has your organization worked to improve access to the health of America’s children through physical activity and nutrition? How? To learn how you can get involved, visit www.presidentschallenge.org and become a President’s Challenge Advocate today.

Note:  The President’s Council’s name was recently changed by Executive Order from President Obama to the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition (PCFSN) in recognition of the fact that good nutrition must go hand in hand with fitness and sports participation in order to achieve a healthy lifestyle.

Overweight and obesity are compromising the childhood of far too many young Americans and putting their future well-being at risk. It’s the topic du jour for good reason, though the focus perhaps skews toward nutrition while underplaying the role of physical activity and exercise. How, then, can we encourage children and adolescents to be more active? I’d like to suggest a few strategies and invite your thoughts.

Build on what works

One good place to start is by doing more of what is already working. We know from research and observation that when students are more physically active they learn more, behave better and earn higher grades. Physical Education classes are important, but are just part of the picture. Can we encourage kids to walk or bike to school, perhaps through “walking school bus” programs or bike lanes? In one study, third- and fourth-graders showed improved on-task behavior after their schools instituted 10-minute, daily periods of in-classroom physical activity.

Sports bring many benefits to those who participate. Some people—particularly children and adolescents with poor body image or who lack confidence—may be reluctant to join a team or league. One answer may be to increase opportunities for noncompetitive games. A quick Internet search will turn up a wealth of ideas for any age group.

High-tech fun

Another strategy gets to young people where they live: in constant contact, on line and gaming. Peer power and opinion leaders exert a pull on all of us, but never more than during our formative years. Why not harness that inexorable force and use it to promote physical activity? Imagine the cascade of Twitter tweets if the “cool kids” start spreading the word that they’re in the park, jogging or playing Ultimate Frisbee. What if a critical mass of Facebook status updates showed that “everyone” was hitting bike trails or trampolines after school?

Further harnessing technology for the cause; let’s not ignore the explosive popularity of video games. Wii Fit Baseball may not burn as many calories as the real thing, but it’s bound to be healthier in all respects than Cosmic Assassins III. Why not think of gift occasions as opportunities to promote active, healthy play with presents both high-tech and traditional? While a smart phone or cable TV subscription may be on the gift list, a gym membership or ball glove might spur a youngster to be a bit more active—and maybe even include the parents.

What strategies can you suggest to encourage children and adolescents to be more active?