Diabetes and Youth Sports

The New York Times has a wonderful piece on the youth sports and their emphasis on elite players to the detriment of evryone else. As the father of a quite gifted 21 month old (not only will he win both the U.S. golf and tennis opens, but he will also win the Monte Carlo Grand Prix, and have a stellar career as a popular musician - think Harry Connick Jr. - and marry a Victoria Secrets model) I was rather interested in it.

It seem, according to the author at least, there is a disturbing trend away from physical fitness for the vast majority of american children. The result is that "children today have a shorter life expectancy than their parents for the first time in 100 years."

Well, I don't know if thats true, and if it was, I would think there were a number of other likely causes ... the inevitable bankruptcy of social security for one ... but the article does raise some points about obesity rates, loss of physical education from school curiculms, and the lack of opportunity for participation on sports teams for kids who aren't "elite" level athletes. Most surprising for me was that starting at the earliest age - 7 or 8 - children are grouped according to ability and placed on elite traveling soccer teams. My neighbor, who's son is 12 confirmed this. Turns out, he was on the elite traveling team. Oh well.

One of the major risks associated with childhood obesity of course is diabetes. Type 2 diabetes, once found mainly in older adults, is now fairly common in children. According to this article, at Texas Chilrens Hospital they now find diabetes in as many as 27% of children, compared to 1% 20 years ago.

I of course, still stay fairly active, though not as much as necessary. I don't htink you need to compete in organized sports, and have always enjoyed singular pursuits more. For me, thats bicycling in the warmer weather (including riding in the American Diabete's Association's Tour de Cure every year) and telemark skiing in the winter.