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Jewish World Review Feb. 26, 2001 / 3 Adar, 5761

Joan Lowy

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Consumer Reports


Urban sprawl may be causing waistline sprawl

http://www.jewishworldreview.com -- Is urban sprawl making Americans fat?

That's what a growing number of health researchers are coming to believe.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is launching a major study to examine the connection between urban sprawl and the dramatic increase in obesity among Americans.

"The initial step is to identify what general relationships are going on - and we assume that there are some because obviously America is experiencing substantial growth in its metro areas and we're also experiencing substantial growth around our waistlines,'' said Rich Killingsworth, a health scientist with the centers' Active Community Environments Initiative.

From 1975 to 1995, there was a 42 percent decline in walking by American adults, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. Much of that decline has been attributed to sprawling suburbs that make walking unsafe or unpleasant. New developments also often place destinations like stores, schools and parks at distances too far away for most people to want to walk.

Meanwhile, obesity among adult Americans has increased 60 percent over the past decade, according to the centers. Today, one in five American adults is defined as obese, which is more than 30 percent above their ideal weight. The percentage of children and teenagers who are overweight has doubled since the early 1960s.

About 75 percent of Americans don't achieve the recommended standard for physical activity - 30 minutes of moderately intense physical activity at least five days a week, Killingsworth said. Overall, 29 percent do virtually no exercise more taxing than walking to and from their car, he said.

Perhaps the most dramatic change has been the sharp decline in children who walk or bike to school. Only 10 percent of children walk or bike to school compared to a majority of students a generation ago.

Parents taking their children to school has exacerbated rush-hour congestion, particularly around schools. "Twenty-five percent of trips on the road in the morning are parents taking their children and other children to school,'' Killingsworth said.

In Georgia, for example, public school buses are a third to half empty most of the time because parents drive their children to school, Killingsworth said.

In North Carolina, a marked decline in school bus ridership and a commensurate increase in parents driving their children to and from public schools and in traffic congestion around schools has prompted researchers at two state universities to launch a study of the problem.

"Unfortunately, there is this behavior that has been instilled in children nationally that the way to get places is by the car no matter how close it is,'' Killingsworth said.

For the past five years, centers officials have promoted a walk-to-school day each fall to encourage more students to walk or bike. In Marin County, Calif., a program funded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration awards points to students for each time they walk or bike to school. The students with the most points win prizes.

The decrease in exercise by children has been exacerbated in some communities by schools that have eliminated recess so that teachers can use the time to help students improve test scores.

"You are removing a natural component of a child's day, which is being active and being playful, and leaving them in a classroom surrounded by four walls for most of their day,'' Killingsworth said.

To make matters worse, many children become couch potatoes when they get home after school.

"The analogy is that we're treating our children like young calves being groomed to become veal,'' Killingsworth said. "We keep them penned in the four walls of either the school or the home most of the day.''

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