Hi guys,
Today I will talk about a research paper that I found interesting that relates to the topic of physical activity. In the article, they studied the behaviours between nutrition and physical activity and the purpose of this study was to determine the diet quality and physical behaviours of students by sex and body weight status to determine the associations between diet and physical activity. Over 400 students were taken in and given a validated web based food behaviour questionnaire. This questionnaire assessed the nutrition intake, physical activities and food behaviours. This was completed from Tuesday to Friday so that they would get all the weekday information. These were then marked on a score from 0 to 100, with 100 being a perfect score of diet quality followed by "needs improvement" and "poor". The students were then measured on their physical activity, amount of television, hours of computer games played, height and weight, and even transportation to and from school.

It was then found that the mean of the students diets was 69.6 which meant that they "needed improvement" and was not different between sex or weight. They also found that the physical activity of those students who scored bad in the diets, were significantly lower than the other people who had a better score in their diet questionnaire. In the end the researchers found that there was a relationship between physical activity and diet in the students surveyed. As the students became less active, their diet was worse than before; on the other hand, the students who were very active had a very high score on their diet questionnaires. The importance of this study was to see whether or not the two were correlated to one another. Through their research, we can see that the two are correlated with one another and by knowing this, we can improve students physical health. By making these students more active, we can direct them towards a more healthy diet and overall improve their health and well being.


References

Associations between diet quality and physical activity
http://www.nrcresearchpress.com.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/doi/pdf/10.1139/H10-085

Physical Education Controversy

Hi bloggers,

Today I'm here to talk to you guys about the controversy with physical education. The major controversy between physical education is whether or not it should be mandatory in schools. Some people argue that their children are not capable of doing physical activity or that there is not enough funding in schools for physical education; However, I believe that physical education should be mandatory in schools since it can help provide children with the idea of staying fit and being healthy through physical activity.

The cost of school sporting events and athletics are increasing and this is causing schools to cut back on the physical education portion of the school. Since the cost of these events are so high the schools are unable to make all students take physical education as part of their school experience because they just do not have the funding in order to accommodate all the students. Another argument against having physical education mandatory in school is that some students are just not capable of participating in those physical activities. Asthma and other ailments prevent some students from being active and would be quite hard to be physically active when one finds it hard to breathe. Causing these students to be physically active could have a negative effect in their view of physical activity which could prevent them from engaging in any form of exercise in their futures.

On the other hand, Physical Education in school is very important for some students. Being engaged in physical activity can be very beneficial to ones health. Early exposure can keep children in shape and healthy while they are young and can get them to get fresh air. It can also help students get used to doing physical activity to stay healthy and stay in shape for later in their lives when they are no longer in school. For some students, physical education is the most important thing that they find while they are in high school. It gives students the confidence and drive to succeed through high school and through their everyday lives. It also gives them a chance to spend time with their peers and keep students under adult supervision outside of school. Physical education gives students a chance to be active in this new world full of technology, and get them moving instead of sitting behind a computer screen.

Through these major points and facts, I would have to say that having physical education in schools is mandatory. Simply because of the benefits that go along with being active and having a healthy lifestyle. If school were to have Physical Education mandatory then students would be exposed to at least 1-2 hours of physical activity each day and they would then be able to get some form of exercise. Even though some students may not be able to participate in the intensive physical activities, teachers/ coaches should be aware of the students conditions and be able to provide alternative forms of physical education for the student. In doing this I believe that people would start to become more active and find physical activity more enjoyable. As well as being a healthier individual overall.

References:

Physical Education suffers budget strains,

http://www.weac.org/news_and_publications/education_news/2003-2004/phyed.aspx

Nutrition, physical activity, and obesity

http://www.cdc.gov/Features/ObesityAndKids/

Should physical activity be mandatory 

http://www.helium.com/items/688884-should-physical-education-be-mandatory

Lacking Credibility!!!

Hey guys, this week I am going to be talking about Credibility and the lack thereof. As we can see from the images below the titles for the articles below are "Why workout hard when you can cheat your way to thin?" and "Fat loss 4 idiots - is it really just for idiots?". So as we can see people would love if these articles were 100% true and that we could easily cheat and be thin; however, if it was really that easy to be thin, then obviously everyone would be thin and people would not have to work for anything. 

So you may ask yourself how can I determine whether or not these articles are real or not? Well there are many different ways to determine whether the articles are real or not. Well for starters, you should not believe everything you read, just because its on the internet doesn't mean that it is true. For example, the images above are completely covered in advertisements that is one thing you may want to watch out for. Credible sites will not any advertisements since they are not looking to gain money. Another would be asking yourself if the article is too good to be true, if you think it is then it probably is. "Cheating your way to thin"? its probably not true. In the image above we can also see a book in the image which is basically the author of the article trying to sell something to the reader. Also in the article it talks about a guy named Marion, who apparently does this for his job; However we don't know who Marion is nor do we have any evidence that the supposed method actually works. 

An example of a good site would be looking at government websites where there is no advertisements and where we know that the site is not trying to sell you anything. The website talks about physical activity and how you need to work in order to improve on something. There is no easy way to cheat in order to become skinnier.  The website above is an example of a site that would be a credible source of information. 

References:
Why workout hard when you can cheat your way to thin. Retrieved from:
http://weightlossdietips.com/
Physical Activity. Retrieved from:
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hl-vs/physactiv/index-eng.php
Healthy Eating. Retrieved from:
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hl-vs/eat-aliment/index-eng.php

Introduction

Hello, my name is John and I am currently going to Simon Fraser. This will be the very first blog I ever write so I am not quite sure where to begin. I am Chinese but born in the Philippines and I grew up in Canada (confusing I know). I am currently taking Kin 140 and will be talking about physical activity for my blog. In doing so, I hope to target people around my age group (18-25) to start doing some sort of physical activity as soon as possible. I decided to choose this topic because I recently have been weight training thanks to my friend who encourages me to go with him to the gym. After 3-4 months I'm glad I started going with him because it just makes me feel more energized and I feel generally more fit and not as lazy as I was before. I believe this is important because people in the age group of 18-25 have been influenced by technology and spend hours upon hours on the internet browsing youtube or trying to find what people are up to on facebook. People need information about physical activity in order to realize that they need to exercise and go out instead of hiding behind a computer screen. From these blogs, I hope to increase my knowledge about physical activity and find new alternative activities that would be enjoyable but still help me in getting exercise and increasing my physical activities. The main message in my topic is that people need to go out and get some physical activity in their daily lives. This will help us become healthier individuals and would help us feel a sense of accomplishment since we went out and did something instead of sitting down and wasting away.