Health-and-Fitness online information.

KEEPING your family spiritually, emotionally, academically and physically healthy is a year-round, often lifelong proposition. But it takes on even more meaning during the months when the children are out of school, the weather heats up and the "lazy" days of summer roll in.

Never, in fact, has it been more important to protect your physical health as well as the health of your children. Recent studies show that obesity rates among Black children and adolescents have nearly doubled in the last 20 years. It's estimated now that one out of seven children aged 6 to 19 is overweight or obese, which is defined as 20 percent over your maximum desirable body weight.

One solution, experts say, is for children to become more active. And the best way for parents to help with that is to get active with them.

"The family should work out together at least two times a week and exercise consistently," says Reggie Bryant, a personal trainer at Fitness Image Inc. Training Center in downtown Chicago. "And children can build on that for the rest of their lives."

# posted by Medical Information : 1:19 AM