The UK
government has recommended some guidelines for the health of children.
According to these guidelines children should do some kind of moderate physical
activity for at least one hour a day. This will protect them getting obese in
future and protect them from diseases linked to obesity. Generally body mass
index (BMI) is used to monitor the impact of physical activity in children. But
according to the claims of new research BMI can’t test the real health of
children.

UK researchers could find no difference in BMI
between those exercising regularly and those missing targets. The latest study,
carried out at Peninsula Medical School
in Plymouth,
examined the exercise levels of 113 boys and 99 girls, born in 1995 and 1996,
over a four-year period. All were fitted with devices called accelerometers,
which measure every movement to give an accurate picture of the amount of
exercise they did.

This research
confirmed the finding of other research that it is perfectly possible for an
individual child to be "fat and fit", provided they are sufficiently
active. In common with other studies, they found that just over half of the
boys, and nearly nine out of 10 girls, fell short of the "hour a day"
target. However, despite the variety of different exercise patterns, there was
no impact on the relative BMI of the children. This, however, did not mean that
the children meeting the target were no healthier - blood testing revealed
clear differences in the underlying metabolic signs of health - such as insulin
resistance and cholesterol levels.

Professor Terry
Wilkin, who led the study, said: "BMI just doesn't pick up any differences
in children - it's just not a sufficiently sensitive measure.” And you can't
carry out blood testing on this scale in schools."

The researchers also
said that a drastic change couldn't be made the routine but a change in diet
improve the health of children. Moreover the importance of physical activity
all together shouldn't be discarded. Children should be encouraged to play
sports. Dr Richard Winsley, a researcher in child exercise science, said that
in the absence of another practical test, BMI should continue to be used, as it
still revealed a useful overview of the improving or declining fitness of large
groups of children. BMI just doesn't pick up any differences in children - it's
just not a sufficiently sensitive measure. BMI is used successfully in adults
as a guide to overall fitness and the success of diet and exercise programmes.