Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Studies have shown...

Whenever I read the words 'studies have shown', with regard to people's diet, behaviour or reaction to medicines; I always groan because the truth is that they usually haven't shown anything at all. The vast majority of these 'studies' aren't done rigorously enough, or on enough subjects to give any meaningful results at all.

They are of great use to marketing experts however, hence a constant stream of fad diets, brightly coloured gizmos and people dancing around in front of their televisions believing that they will lose weight.

This one may well be the same, but it does agree with something I've gone on about for years both on my blog and in my book; ie that regular exercise for both children and adults is absolutely vital. From my own experience, it improves kids behaviour (even the naughtiest child will behave perfectly after about three days on any school trip involving some prolonged physical effort outdoors) and if it improves their concentration and ability then that's a Brucey Bonus, as the great man would say.

If I had my way, a wide range of energetic sports would be done each day at schools (with a large supply of comical kit for those who have 'forgotten' theirs)

1 comment:

phatboy said...

Why the comical kit? When I was at school if you forgot your kit you did it in your unmentionables. Most kids had learnt the lesson by secondary school but I do remember a couple of trouble-makers running around the gym in their pants on one occasion... never happened again that I recall.