To fight fat, fitness programs needed

To the editor:

Veronica Gonzales, State District 41 Representative, wrote an article in the Megametropolis Health & Fitness magazine. She had recently traveled to Austin to attend the House Public Health committee’s intern meeting on obesity.

I concur with Mrs. Gonzales’ findings. Yes, people young and old are growing fatter. Is this due to overeating and consuming high-calorie, nutritionally dense food? That contributes to people gaining weight. What about inactivity throughout the day? If you eat three meals a day (plus snacks in between) and do very little to burn the calories, you are a candidate to gain weight and to increase your chances of having high blood pressure at an early age. What is so alarming is the children who are obese and develop Type II diabetes.

The Valley continues to develop outstanding athletic programs in all sports. Coaches strive to win district, regional and state championships. This means implementing conditioning programs, along with acquisition of skills to produce good athletes and high-caliber teams. But what about the majority of students: those not endowed with athletic ability and not involved in sports? Are they being short-changed? Coaches and physical education instructors must implement a yearly program that ensured all students be involved in vigorous activities. And yes, this will also minimize discipline problems in school. School administrators should try to maintain a low teacher-pupil ratio. It’s difficult to implement a good program with 60 to 70 or more students per instructor. And parents, you also can do your part my making sure your child “plays in the backyard” instead of with his/her video games, etc.

Pete Romero

McAllen