Commentary: Exercise is Cool

According to a recent study described in this article, one in five children will become obese by the end of the decade. The reason? Apparently because the government doesn't care enough about overweight kids. Well at least that's one of the reasons. The article goes on at length to complain of a lack of funding for obesity-prevention programs, one of which was a $59 million ad campaign aimed at 9-13 year olds which tried to show that exercising was cool. (9-13 is when kids start winding down the whole exercise thing and start up the whole sit-around-and-do-nothing thing.) If the fact that professional sports, as popular as it is in this country, is not convincing kids that exercise is "cool", I don't think some nerds riding around on a skateboard is going to cut it. Is it just me or should we also lump in as a reason the fact that parents don't seem to be doing their part? Between healthy eating, exercise and perhaps cutting back the TV/video-game/computer time, I feel that there would be a chance that some of those "one in five" could avoid becoming obese. But lets blame it on the government instead, while also blaming the government for spending too much money.