Not Either/Or, It’s Both/And
A new study published in JAMA Network Open last week found that adequate physical activity and lower screen time during adolescents appears to be an important recipe for maintaining normal body weight. Importantly for teenagers, one without the other doesn’t do it. We already know that sedentary behavior increases the risk of developing overweight and obesity, which the National Institutes of Health recognizes as a chronic disease . For teenagers especially, the behavior and the consequences only got worse during the pandemic: Currently, the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans published by the US Department of Health and Human Services recommends 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity per day for adolescents; however, in the last 5 years, the proportion of US adolescents meeting these guidelines decreased to lower than 25%, with subsequent reductions to lower than 10% during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. This decrease in physical ...