When Walt Disney’s Pixar film WALL-E hit the big screens it seemed to be more than the next cute animation. On the surface it delivered the same warm laughs and sentimental values characteristic of its Pixar predecessors. However as viewers witnessed super obese humans whose daily activities were ordered by the technology-driven world they lived in one couldn’t help but sense a faint prophetic message that challenged us to think about the future we are creating.

Childhood obesity is more than a health issue. It is a societal issue on every level; impacting the future workforce economy safety and leadership of this nation. Both its cause and its solution are rooted in a two-sided equation involving changes in eating habits and changes in physical activity. Leaving the food issue aside let’s focus on the often-dismissed issue of modern changes in physical activity in children. As the age of technology and the Internet continue to fascinate and hold us captive it is easy to forget just how far the apple has fallen from the tree. 

Current physical activity guidelines for Americans recommends that youth (aged 6-17 years) participate in a minimum of one hour of moderate to vigorous physical activity each day. This certainly doesn’t seem like much and may be very conservative when considering how much physical activity youth engaged in before the era of the Internet. Despite this slim recommendation the sad reality is that not even a quarter of today’s youth aged 12 to 15 years meet this requirement. High school students don’t seem to fare any better as only 27 percent meet this requirement. Comparatively screen time has increased drastically among youth and can account for direct loss of physical activity time. The average youth aged 8-18 years spends approximately 7.5 hours using entertainment media 4.5 hours watching television 1.5 hours on the computer and over an hour playing video games each day. If today’s youth spend sevenfold more time in front of a screen compared to time spent being physically active the prophetic message of WALL-E just may be closer to reality than we would like to admit. 

The positive benefits of engaging in routine physical activity should give adequate motivation for changing these dire statistics among our youth and reach far beyond the traditional health benefits of improving cardiovascular disease risks obesity and diabetes risks. Engaging in routine physical activity has been directly associated with improvement in academic performance. Aerobic physical activity particularly has been shown to increase neurogenesis angiogenesis hippocampal volume and connectivity resulting in better memory stress regulation academic performance and higher scores on intelligence testing and state tests. Aerobic activities are easy to encourage and incorporate into children’s daily schedules. Moderate aerobic activities include hiking biking swimming and walking. Vigorous aerobic activities include sports that require running (soccer baseball basketball hockey tennis) jumping rope martial arts skiing and more.

As mental health issues such as depression suicidal thoughts and anxiety rise among youth it may be relevant to recognize the association between physical activity and mental health. Several reviews have pointed to small but positive associations between increased physical activity and improved mental health. Improvement may be in part a response to decreased screen time that often accompanies increased physical activity but the physical benefits that activity impresses upon brain function cannot be ignored as well. Recent reviews have shown that physical activity intervention has produced improvements in anxiety self-esteem cognitive function and depression among children and youth. These same markers were also noted to be negatively associated with sedentary behavior.

Encouraging increased physical activity in children and youth should begin by realizing that the displacement hypothesis is highly influential in robbing our time for physical activity. The displacement hypothesis claims that one behavior (such as sitting at a screen or engaging in another sedentary activity) displaces another activity (a physical activity). Therefore limiting screen time can be a first – and large – step in encouraging more physical activity. The allotted hours in a day have not changed since the beginning of time but the demands upon our time certainly have increased making it more necessary to choose purposeful activities. Affordable home-based physical activity could include a family sporting event such as biking walking or jogging. Children and youth are more likely to engage in physical activity when parents role model involvement and enjoyment in similar activity. Alternatively encouraging children to participate in community-based seasonal sporting events such as soccer baseball or others can provide a competitive and motivational opportunity for physical activity. Family memberships to a local gym may provide the opportunity to engage in a variety of events and classes together fostering both an enthusiasm for physical activity and family time. 

The current trajectory of this nation in regards to our engagement in physical activity and its effects on personal and societal health is alarming and demands a change. Rather than allowing our youth to continue down this path we should take action in promoting physical activity in our youth which just may start with a change in the adults.