Country kids fatter than ever

It has been a long-held belief that in farm communities and other rural towns, that heavy chores, wide expanses of land and fresh air make leaner, stronger bodies. This is not so. In fact, now in these rural areas, the kids literally take the cake from urban children. "Whatever the situation was, rural areas are leading the way now ... they're ahead of the curve," said Michael Meit, director of the University of Pittsburgh Center for Rural Health Practice. About 16 percent of urban students qualified as obese, according to Meit's study, which is in line with national average for children ages 6-19. In rural school districts, however, 20 percent of students were considered obese. Researchers were also surprised to find that the number of obese students in rural school districts rose about 5 percent during the past 2 years of the survey, more than twice the rate of their urban counterparts. Here are a few of the most drastic findings:In rural North Carolina children had a 50 percent greater chance of being obese. More than a quarter of all fifth-graders in West Virginia are obese, where two-thirds of the population is rural and one in four public school children in Arkansas are obese. It isn't too clear as to why rural child obesity is on the rise but some speculate that with fewer family farms and more mechanization, children are not burning many calories, but they're still eating high-calorie meals. Another theory is that the answer might be found in the satellite dishes, computers and game consoles that have popped up in almost every town, regardless of the region's economic engine. The same technology is found in cities and suburbs, but health officials say it arrived later and spread much more rapidly in rural areas, changing behavior dramatically in a very short time. Officials are concerned that because of all this, diabetes and heart disease will be rampid. All I have to say is lets start those sit-ups!
http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/diet.fitness/03/14/rural.obesity.ap/index.html