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Exercise industry supports National's plan for children

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Mon, 9 Dec 2019, 12:02PM
(Photo / Getty)

Exercise industry supports National's plan for children

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Mon, 9 Dec 2019, 12:02PM

The National Party has a new plan to tackle children obesity.

They want to make it compulsory for all schoolkids to exercise for 15 minutes a day. 

It copies a plan from the United Kingdom called the 'Daily Mile'. 

90 per cent of kids don't meet the WHO guidelines for exercise. 

Exercise NZ boss Richard Beddie told Mike Hosking that those guidelines are an hour of activity, that doesn't have to be structured activity. 

"We are one of the worst in the world. To put that into perspective, often people think it's a western country problem, it's not. Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan are the top three countries in terms of physical inactivity for adults, and we're number 13." 

He says government intervention should be a last resort, but given it is such a problem, it is clearly needed in this case. 

Beddie says that while most schools have PE, those classes tend to be based around sports and turns it into a chore. 

"If you're not a sporty kid, that can be seen as a negative." 

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