Dr. Laura Bellows (in the video at :07) is a professor of nutrition and food science at Colorado State University and is part of a study that is designed to find ways to cut down on childhood obesity.

The focus of the efforts might surprise you. When the idea is to cut down on childhood obesity, we might think the method would be to preach to the world the evils of certain types of foods.

That's not the exact direction they are taking, though.

The focus has been more on the way adults play, if they continue to play into adulthood, and how it helps them relate to and play with their kids. With the kids, basic motor and movement skills are the key. They believe that if we learn how to move as a child, we won't be afraid to do the same as an adult.

If we are afraid to move as an adult, there is really no way to teach our kids to move without inhibition. If we are adverse to movement, our kids will be adverse to movement.

This is a part of the problem in the epidemic of childhood and adult obesity in America. Part of it comes from the fact that little movement burns little calories. Another aspect of it is communication. When we play with our kids, and learn to relate to them on levels that are more than parent to child instruction, we are more able to help them understand important nutritional (and other) lessons.

So, play, adults, play! Play with reckless abandon. Play until you have forgotten what you started off doing. Play until you forget what day, time or season it is.

Get dirty. Wallow in the mud. Ruin a pair of shoes. Slide some grass stains into those pants.

And while you do it, you can hum the happy tune of a parent who is doing exactly what they are supposed to be doing.

 

 

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