It may sound like a lopsided television wrestling match, but it is a serious fight that we must win. The author has some important credentials and personal experience to offer on how to win. Our opponents are fierce, ugly, and well rooted in our country. Can a small ping pong ball compete against these monsters? Can a table tennis table compete with a dining table? Let’s take a close look at our competition first.
According to the scientific journal Lancet, we have a “childhood obesity epidemic.” The prevalence of overweight children and adolescents has increased dramatically in recent decades, bringing an unprecedented incidence of chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and heart disease in our children. As children get heavier around the world, more are at risk for coronary heart disease (CHD) as adults, says the New England Journal of Medicine. The culprits of this attack on our health are NOT hard to find.
Screen time, including watching television, surfing the Internet, and playing video games, has been associated with promoting inactivity, which is linked to this rapid rise in obesity. How much time in front of the screen? According to the Henry Kaiser Foundation, children ages 8 to 18 spend approximately 1.5 hours on a computer, more than an hour playing video games, 4.5 hours watching television, and 7.5 hours in entertainment media … FOR DAY! That’s just one of our grotesque opponents.
The good news is that “screen time” has made our lives easier in many ways. The downside is that “screen time” has robbed us of most of the exercise time we previously used to balance our food intake. That food intake has gotten ugly too, hasn’t it?
For more than three decades, fast food has infiltrated every corner of American society. It started with a handful of modest hot dog and hamburger stands in Southern California, but has now spread to every corner of the country. Fast food is now served in restaurants and convenience stores, stadiums, airports, zoos, high schools, elementary schools, universities, cruise ships, trains and airplanes, at K-Marts, Wal-Marts, gas stations, and even hospital cafeterias. .
In 1970, Americans spent about $ 6 billion on fast food; in 2000, they spent more than $ 110 billion. Don’t even ask about 2010! Americans now spend more money on fast food than on higher education, personal computers, computer software, or new cars. We spend more on fast food than we do on movies, books, magazines, newspapers, videos and recorded music, COMBINED, says author Eric Schlosser.
Most of this food has high amounts of fat and sugar with little fiber, vitamins or minerals. Our food market is now dominated by processed foods, which hide dangerous levels of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Don’t forget that sodas and “rehydration” fluids are processed foods too. Robert Lustig, MD at UCSF says that the HFCS industry wields enormous political power over our legislators.
On the other hand, SOME screen time is good for us. If you eat food and want to know what the sugar industry is doing, watch “Sugar: The Bitter Truth” on YouTube. Now step into the mighty, but tiny, ping pong ball!
Before the author became a sports medicine consultant, before he had a tennis coaching company, even before he was a tennis player … he was a table tennis player. Just one of the millions who actively take refuge in the basement of the Midwest snow. Before that, he was an ill-suited target for the school bully. For that kid, a little ping pong ball helped give him physical confidence, steer him away from a sedentary lifestyle, and give him huge FUN after school.
It is key that the first time you pick up a paddle or table tennis racket; you can easily have fun and feel skilled without training. Against a friend or family member of similar ability, you can even quickly rise to the self-proclaimed title of “Threat.”
Compared to screen time, ping pong / table tennis is a hugely beneficial exercise, no matter how tame the game is. Many tables even have a replay mode (remember Forrest Gump?), For a one-player workout. Here’s a more important word about our strong opponents in this fight for our health.
Some researchers, such as Dr. Alweena Zairi, who study the causes of poor performance in children, believe that sedentary practices affect children’s preschool neurodevelopment and academic potential when they start school. Teachers are finding that they have to deal with a growing number of children suffering from numerous conditions born out of a childhood of conditioned inactivity.
Both table tennis and tennis are very popular international sports with professional tours that require great athleticism and dedication. Tennis is almost always played outdoors. Table tennis is almost always indoors and requires much less space. It is also much less expensive to learn and enjoy than tennis. Entry level is much easier. Even better for the family, every parent can look like a “professional” and have a great time too.
Ping Pong or Table Tennis: Be a Threat!
