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Introduction
The number of overweight students in our school has been skyrocketing over the past few years. Due to insufficient exercises and imbalanced diets, our students are vulnerable to obesity. Obesity can lead to severe health problems, for instance, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes mellitus. According to our students’ BMI records, over one-fifth of our students are overweight. The parents are worrying about this horrendous issue. Our school should never turn our back to the worsening situation.
The aim of this proposal is to suggest ways to tackle the problem of obesity in our school so that our students can be both physically and mentally healthy.
Extending PE lessons
There are only one double PE lessons per week while it only lasts for one hour. The lessons are too short. Students do not have sufficient time to learn various kinds of sports or do some aerobic exercises. Since our students need to cope with the weighty homework and examinations every day, seldom do they have chances to do exercises. PE lesson is the one and only one chance for many of them to exercise.
Extending PE lessons, for example, two double lessons per week, can allow students to stretch their muscles and consume the energy which they obtain from food on a regular basis. The energy obtained and consumed is likely to be balanced if students exercise at least two times per week. Extending PE lessons can surely help to alleviate the problem of obesity.
Setting up a small gymnasium
Doing aerobic exercises twenty minutes per day can burn approximately five hundred calories. Since our school does not have sufficient space for every student to run or cycle, they have a slim chance to do aerobic exercise. As a result, their lipids and calories are not consumed and they accumulate in the body. Obesity then occurs.
Setting up a small gymnasium and installing some sports facilities, for instance, treadmills and stationary bikes, in the gymnasium can provide chances for students to do aerobic exercises. Students can freely use the equipment during recess or lunch time. They can burn calories in a very short period of time. It is an absolutely convenient way for students to do exercise as it does not cost too much time. The Department of Physical Education can also launch some complementary activities or bonus schemes to encourage students to use the facilities frequently.
Healthy snacks
According to our school’s Tuck Shop Annual Report, over 80% of their revenue comes from unhealthy snacks, for instance, French fries, chocolates and potato chips. Only a small proportion of students will choose sandwiches or noodles as their snacks. It unveils the situation that our students consume an excess amount of sugary and salty food. Excess sugar, salt, and lipids will convert to subcutaneous fat in the body, leading to the problem of obesity.
Our school can join hands with the tuck shop to promote healthy snacks, such as banana chips and nuts. We should also restrict the amount of unhealthy snacks that the tuck shop sells. For the sake of encouraging the tuck shop to sell healthy snacks , regardless of their profit and costs, our school can provide subsidies to encourage it to reduce the portion of unhealthy snacks while increasing that of healthy snacks. Our students will then choose to consume healthy food which has less sugar and salt. The total energy intake will then be reduced.
Conclusion
To conclude, it would be possible to eradicate the problem of obesity under coordination of different departments. The Department of Physical Education can be responsible for setting up the new syllabus of extended PE lessons and finding new or donated sports facilities for the new gymnasium. Thank you for your sincere consideration.