Twenty or 30 years ago, exercise was more of a given.
Then, kids pedaled bicycles and tricycles, she says.
Now, toys are motorized.
Then, everybody went out and played in the neighborhood ball games, she says, and parents weren’t always working.
Now, kids spend time with computers and video games and McPherson herself admits to banning her own kids from outside play before she came home from work for safety’s sake.
And now there’s the ease of cordless commands.
“You know, we don’t have to get up to do anything anymore,” she says. “We don’t have to get up to answer the telephone because our cell phones are in our pockets. We don’t have to get up to turn on the TV because the remote control is right there.”
This luxury is why McPherson says we now have to carve out room for exercise, like walking to our mailbox for the mail, for example, she says.
Yet she quickly spots a modern dilemma.
“Of course you get e-mails now, so you don’t even have to walk to the mailbox,” she laughs.
But right alongside modern ease are alarming numbers and disease.
More than ever, high school students in South Carolina are bigger than they should be, says state data released early this year.
In 10 years, the percentage of overweight or obese high school students expanded from 24 percent in 1999 to 32 percent of students last year.
And Newberry is in the mix.
“The things that we have seen in our students,” says McPherson, “have followed the national and state trends that are reported in almost everything that you can pick up and read related to children’s health.”
McPherson, who has worked as a school nurse coordinator for 15 years, says students today also have more chronic illness than they did 10 years ago like asthma, diabetes, high blood pressure, insulin resistance and cholesterol abnormalities.
An increase in students’ weight is one “factor” to blame for the illnesses, she says.
And as to what’s causing weight gain, you can take your pick.
McPherson says you can research medical Web sites and find almost a study for thousands of ideas explaining the root issue.
Processed foods and a more sedentary lifestyle are on McPherson’s blame list.
The state agrees.
Contributing factors to obesity include reduction in physical activity, increase in sedentary behaviors such as television viewing and other screen time and continued poor nutritional choices, says to Delores Pluto, survey coordinator for the South Carolina Department of Education.
About one-third of high school students attended physical education classes at least once in an average school week, the state says, and 40 percent watched three or more hours of television on an average school day.
As far as healthy eating, only 15 percent of high school students ate fruits and/or vegetables five or more times in one week, the state found.
Weightier matters
Being overweight or obese “matters if you’re looking at your own life expectancy and quality of life,” McPherson says.
Carrying excess body weight as a child oftentimes means being overweight as an adult, she says.
Extra pounds are also partly responsible for heart problems, high blood pressure, strokes, diabetes and kidney failure, she adds.
And then there’s early death.
“All those things come into play when looking into South Carolina’s mortality (rate),” McPherson says. “And we know that in South Carolina the leading causes of death are either directly or indirectly related to the problems with (being) overweight.”
What to do
Newberry youth can fight an inactive lifestyle with exercise, and McPherson lists local combat sites: YMCA, the hospital’s walking track and city or county recreation teams.
But before exercising, first talk to a doctor to spot underlying medical problems, McPherson says.
And could our state government also help students fight excess weight?
There is an idea in the legislature that could prevent schools from selling foods high in sugar and fat. The health plan would ban food with more than 35 percent of calories from fat and 10 percent from saturated fat.
McPherson says she supports anything that benefits students. But she says she isn’t sure about a law preventing even an after-school bake sale.
“I think ice cream and cookies and cake have their role in life,” says McPherson. “I enjoy them.”
More than just banning certain food, McPherson says education about healthy choices is important. Because school is only a part of student’s lives, she says, and education on health can impact their whole lifestyle.
She thinks school should teach children how to set limits on junk food, and to eat fruits and vegetables as a main diet and snack, she says.
It’s also good to experiment eating different foods, she says.
And over time, if you munch fruits and vegetables instead of processed snacks, “veggies become as appealing as a bag of chips were,” she says. “It’s all in what we get used to.”
“It’s a balance between calorie intake and calorie expenditure,” she says. “If we have a high-calorie diet then we need a high-calorie expenditure.”
The Hope
Though more students in South Carolina public high schools carry more weight than they should, McPherson says she knows instances where youth buy water and baked snacks over soda and fried fare.
And she is hopeful the trend towards more weight slims during this decade.
“There is a big push among students to be healthy,” she says. “I think we are seeing children who are paying closer attention to their diet.”
For more information
The state’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey asks about things that affect youth’s social relationships, illness or premature death.
The survey has been conducted every other year in high schools since 1991 and in middle schools since 2005. More than 1,100 students in grades 9-12 and 1,325 students in grades 6-8 completed the questionnaire last spring.
Results have a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percent.
2009 risky behavior
Here’s what the state found out from an anonymous 2009 student survey:
Abuse between dating teens: UP
More than one in six high school students in 2009 said they had recently been hit or physically hurt by their boyfriend or girlfriend. That’s up from one in eight teens in 1999.
Percentage of high school students who have engaged in sexual intercourse at least once: DOWN
In a decline from a high of 70 percent in 1991, the trend has leveled off in recent years. Almost 40 percent of high school students engaged in sexual intercourse in the three months prior to the survey.
The study also says that about one-fourth of middle school students have engaged in sexual intercourse at least once.
Teen drinking: DOWN
Teen drinking is down 10 percentage points from 1999 when 45 percent of high school students had consumed at least one alcoholic drink in the previous month.
But with 35 percent of high school students drinking alcohol, “underage drinking is certainly still an issue,” said Delores Pluto, survey coordinator for the South Carolina Department of Education.
High school students’ 2009 tobacco usage: DOWN
With just over 27 percent of high school students having used some tobacco product in the 30 days prior to the survey, the number is less than the 41.5 percent in 1999.
2009 risky behavior
Although these rates have been declining nationally thanks to restrictive smoking policies and tobacco taxes, one in five high school students still smoke cigarettes, according to Pluto.
Excise taxes on tobacco products have been shown to effectively discourage youth from becoming tobacco users.
High school students overweight or obese in 2009: UP
The 2009 figure of 32 percent of overweight or obese student total is up from 24 percent in 1999.
Contributing factors to obesity include reduction in physical activity, increase in sedentary behaviors (such as television viewing and other screen time) and continued poor nutritional choices, according to Delores Pluto, survey coordinator for the South Carolina Department of Education.
The state’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey asks middle and high students to respond anonymously about things that cause social issues, illness or premature deaths in youth.
See more information at www.ed.sc.gov/HealthySchools
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