Argumentative essay - children need more excersice PDF

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Argumentative essay about how children need to excersise more. ...

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Children Need More Exercise in Their Every Day Lives Introduction I have always been a very physically active person. I live in a small village in the countryside where exercise is a natural part of my lifestyle. I go horse riding every day and spend most of my spare time working in the stable. Besides spending time with the horses I go for evening jogs in the forest and attend zumba classes. My childhood has consisted of outdoor activities and a lot of fresh air and I wouldn’t want to have had it any other way.

The dilemma The last couple of years I have noticed a huge change in the way children spend their leisure time. The average child between the age of 8 and 18 years spends 6 hours or more in front of a screen. 1 Every day we receive reports and studies that conclude that children are becoming more and more obese and are developing dangerous diseases at a much earlier age than in previous generations. Children nowadays, almost entirely, socialise with their friends on-line while sitting on their couch and this is affecting their health, social life and even their study results.

How we solve the problems These radical changes really scare me and make me wonder what our future will turn out to be. This is why I suggest that we should make a necessary change in childrens’ every day lives. These changes could for exempel be more PE, a wider and cheaper variety of after school activities and teaching of the importance of exercise and healthy food choices. Hopefully the youths will realise how essential exercise is to live a happy and healthy life. These changes are a huge investment in our children and in our society. Because the challenges that we are facing due to our childrens lifestyle affect all of us. Approximately 20% of all the 10-year-olds in Sweden are obese.2 A healthier lifestyle will prevent them from continuing down this dangerous path. More exercise will lower their blood sugar levels and therefore reduce the risk of being diagnosed with diabetes and heart disease. 3 Also, regular exercise at an early age strengthens the bones in our body and prevents bone fragility later on in life.4 These changes will lead to less health checks and therefore save the tax-payers a great amount of money. The money that is saved can be reinvested in the children by giving away scholarships, improving the school standards and increasing the amount of after school activities. In this way the children will benefit even more from exercising and taking care of their bodies. Thirty minutes of exercise improves your quality of sleep with up to 65%. 5 As a result of the enriched sleep people feel more alert during the day and everyday tasks will become a lot easier. This leads to a higher level of efficiency and focus at work or at school which our 1 http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-32067158 2 http://www.e-boris.se/barnfetma.html 3 http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/obesity-prevention-source/obesity-consequences/health-effects/ 4 https://www.nos.org.uk/healthy-bones-and-risks/exercise-and-strong-bones 5 https://sleepfoundation.org/sleep-news/study-physical-activity-impacts-overall-quality-sleep

society will benefit from immensely. Individuals will also benefit as they will have more free time to spend with family and friends and things they are passionate about. Giving people more time to develop and enrich their spare time will hopefully give them a feeling of meaning, belonging and balance between their work-life and family life. Lastly, exercise and high quality sleep are important factors for preventing depression and strengthening your mental health. Exercise releases endorphines and dopamine, natural chemicals that makes you feel happiness and a feeling of pleasure. Deciding to get moving and then going through with it gives you a feeling of self-control and will most likely boost your self-confidence. Exercise is also an excellent stress-reducer since it releases more of the stress-relieving chemical that your brain uses in nerve-wrecking situations.6 Many people struggle with relaxation in today´s society. An active lifestyle will help you relax because when your body temperature increases it signals to your brain that it is time to relax and go to sleep. We all know how warm and calm we get after a tough work-out. 7 Some people may argue that it will be difficult to convince children to start moving, because they have become used to a passive lifestyle. They mean that it is worthless to encourage them using our time, money and effort, but the case is in fact the opposite. If we see this as a mission to invest in all our futures it will not be seen as a burden. Any measures that we take at this early stage will be time well spent in the end. If the future generations are healthy and strong everyone will benefit from it in the end, economically, politically and individually. We as global citizens need to make a statement against this passive and unhealthy lifestyle that has become far too common in our western society. Do what you can. Reach out to the politicians in your community and demand change. Start an after school activity for children in your neighbourhood. Enlighten people around you about the risks of inactive habits. Encourage children to get off the couch and show them how much fun they can have being active. I am sure that we can make a huge impact if we all stand together. We are the change.

References http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-32067158 , Jane Wakefield, 2015 http://www.e-boris.se/barnfetma.html , 2006

6 http://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/exercising-to-relax 7 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/27/mental-health-benefits-exercise_n_2956099.html

http://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/exercising-to-relax , 2011 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/27/mental-health-benefits-exercise_n_2956099.html , Sophia

Breene 2013 http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/obesity-prevention-source/obesity-consequences/health-effects/ https://www.nos.org.uk/healthy-bones-and-risks/exercise-and-strong-bones

https://sleepfoundation.org/sleep-news/study-physical-activity-impacts-overall-quality-sleep https://sleepfoundation.org/sleep-topics/diet-exercise-and-sleep...