More Exercise

[Guest guest]

Of course it WOULD be kind of cool to be the first country in history

actually to die of laziness.

 

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Offbeat News

Friday, March 12, 2004

This Sounds About Right....  

 

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Americans spend far more time

driving cars and watching television than they do exercising,

researchers said on Thursday in a study that helps shed light

on the country's obesity epidemic.

 

 

Americans also spend more time in the office than people in

other countries, found the report from a team at the University

of California, Berkeley.

 

 

The report came the same week federal government

researchers said deaths caused by poor eating habits and a lack

of exercise were fast catching up to smoking as a leading cause

of death. In 2000, 400,000 people died from eating badly and

laziness, compared with 435,000 who died from smoking-related

illness.

 

 

" This study provides a wake-up call for the nation,

particularly in light of rising obesity rates in this country, "

said Linda Dong, a student of epidemiology at UC Berkeley's

School of Public Health, who led the activity study.

 

 

" A lot of people aren't fully aware of how sedentary their

lives are. This paper shows that, as a population, leisure-time

physical activities are at the bottom of our priority lists. "

 

 

Writing in a new publication called the International

Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, Dong and

colleagues said they looked at surveys of 7,515 adults

questioned from 1992 to 1994 for the National Human Activity

Pattern Survey.

 

 

They reported on everything they did and how long they did

it during the prior 24 hours.

 

 

Dong's team analyzed the information and assigned energy

output for each activity.

 

 

On average, those surveyed spent 170 minutes a day watching

TV and movies -- nine times the minutes spent on all leisure

exercise. The average time spent driving was 101 minutes a day.

 

 

The U.S. Health and Human Services Department launched an

advertising campaign on Tuesday aimed at encouraging people to

exercise a bit more and eat healthier foods such as fruits and

vegetables.

 

 

But Dong's team noted Americans may not have as much free

time for exercise as citizens of other countries.

 

 

They cited U.S. Labor Department statistics that showed

workers in the United States clocked in 1,821 hours in 2001,

while those in Germany logged 1,467 hours.

 

 

" People are supposed to work in 60 minutes a day of

moderate physical activity, but given the way our society is

now, we don't have a lot of extra time on our hands to go out

and jog, " said Gladys Bock, a professor of epidemiology and

public health nutrition who oversaw the study.

 

 

 

 

 

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