It may sound like a lopsided TV wrestling match, but it’s a serious fight that we have to win. The author has some important credentials and personal experience to offer on how to win. Our opponents are fierce, ugly, and well-rooted in our country. Can a little ping pong ball compete against these monsters? Can a ping-pong table compete with a dining table? Let’s take a close look at our competition first.
According to the scientific journal Lancet, we have an “epidemic of childhood obesity.” The prevalence of overweight children and adolescents has increased dramatically in recent decades, bringing an unprecedented incidence of chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and heart disease to our children. As children get heavier around the world, more are at risk for coronary heart disease (CHD) in adulthood, says the New England Journal of Medicine. The culprits in this assault on our health are NOT hard to find.
Screen time, including watching television, surfing the Internet, and playing video games, has been associated with promoting inactivity, which is linked to this rapid rise in obesity. How much screen time? According to the Henry Kaiser Foundation, children ages 8 to 18 spend approximately 1.5 hours on a computer, more than an hour playing video games, 4.5 hours watching television, and 7.5 hours on entertainment media… DAY! That’s just one of our grotesque opponents.
The good news is that “screen time” has made our lives easier in many ways. The downside is that “screen time” has robbed us of most of the exercise time we used to use to balance our food intake. That food intake has also turned ugly, hasn’t it?
For more than three decades, fast food has infiltrated every nook and cranny of American society. It started with a handful of modest hot dog and hamburger stands in Southern California, but has now spread to every corner of the nation. Fast food is now served in restaurants and drive-throughs, stadiums, airports, zoos, high schools, elementary schools, universities, cruise ships, trains, and airplanes, at K-Marts, Wal-Marts, gas stations, and even hospital cafeterias. .
In 1970, Americans spent about $6 billion on fast food; in 2000, they spent more than $110 billion. Don’t even ask about 2010! Americans now spend more money on fast food than they do on higher education, personal computers, computer software, or new cars. We spend more on fast food than we do on movies, books, magazines, newspapers, videos, and recorded music, COMBINED, says author Eric Schlosser.
Most of this food is high in fat and sugar with little fiber, vitamins, or minerals. Our food market is now dominated by food processing, hiding threatening levels of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Don’t forget that soft drinks and “rehydration” fluids are also processed foods. Robert Lustig, MD at UCSF says the HFCS industry wields enormous political power over our legislators.
On the other hand, SOME screen time is good for us. If you eat food and want to know what the sugar industry is up to, watch “Sugar: The Bitter Truth” on YouTube. Now enter the mighty, but tiny, ping pong ball!
Before the author became a sports medicine consultant, before he operated a tennis training business, even before he was a tennis player… he was a table tennis player. Just one of millions actively sheltering in the Midwest’s snow cellar. Before that, he was a less than adequate target for the school bully. For that kid, a little ping pong ball helped build physical confidence, kept him away from a sedentary lifestyle, and provided huge FUN after school.
It is key that the first time you pick up a paddle or table tennis racket; you can easily have fun and feel skillful without training. Against a similarly skilled friend or family member, you can even quickly rise to the self-proclaimed title of “Threat.”
Compared to screen time, ping pong/table tennis is a hugely beneficial exercise, no matter how tame the game. Many tables even have a replay mode (remember Forrest Gump?), for a single player workout. Here is one more important word about our strong opponents in this fight for our health.
Some researchers, such as Dr. Alweena Zairi, who studies the causes of underachievement in children, believe that sedentary practices affect preschool neurodevelopment and the academic potential of children when they start school. Teachers are realizing that they have to deal with a growing number of children suffering from numerous conditions stemming from a childhood of conditioned inactivity.
Both table tennis and tennis are very popular international sports with professional tours that require tremendous athleticism and dedication. Tennis is almost always played outdoors. Table tennis is almost always indoors and requires much less space. It is also much less expensive to learn and enjoy than tennis. The entry level is much easier. Even better for the family, each parent can look like a “pro” and have a good time too.
Ping pong or table tennis – be a threat!