OTTAWA -- Canadian adults have a so-so record of physical
activity, says a global couch potato survey. But it’s our kids
who urgently need to ditch their iPhones and run somewhere.
Younger teens in this country are two to three times as inactive
as adults, says a survey by The Lancet, one of the world’s most
influential medical journals. It finds our level of physical
activity ranks high among Western nations -- better than in the
U.S., and better than those pesky Swedes who were supposed to be
fitter at age 60 than Canadians at 30. But it appears to be a
myth that healthy, active teenagers are later turning into
sedentary adults. The Lancet says between 70 and 79 per cent of
Canadian boys aged 13 to 15 are inactive, and so are 80 to 89
per cent of girls the same age. (The findings for teens are
shown in graph form, with increments of 10 percentage points.)
There’s less time in school for physical education, and Canadian
and U.S. students are increasingly riding to school in a bus or
their parents’ car, the s