Image from iStock/Leonardo Patrizi.
CBC: As Canada’s Olympic medal wins have climbed, so have obesity rates
As CBC reports:
When U.S. gold medal swimmer Michael (The Flying Fish) Phelps pierces the surface of the pool like a bullet at the Rio Olympics, millions around the world will be watching.
Phelps has broken multiple world records and continues to inspire young athletes to push the limits, but do world-class Olympians inspire fans and everyday people to get more active?
Dean says the opposite is true: winning more Olympic medals strongly correlates with a rise in obesity rates, at least in Canada.
Kriellaars, an associate professor at the University of Manitoba’s Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, was interested in seeing whether there was any relationship between the Olympics and activity levels in the general population…
In terms of why the relationship between obesity and podium finishes exists, Kriellaars said there could be another rise that helps explain the growing tendency to sit and watch rather than get up and go.
“Now there’s a screen everywhere,” he said. “We have a situation where screens basically make you inactive, so now the viewerships are so large that we have more sport spectators than we have sport participants, and that’s the problem.”
Watch more from Kriellaars on the topic below.