Combating Obesity
Obesity in America is an epidemic that does not look like it is going to stop any time soon. The obesity rate amongst adults in the year 2017 in the United States is 39.8% which is 93.3 million people(CDC,2017) and is rapidly growing. Lowering the obesity rate is important to our country’s and citizens’ wellbeing. Combating obesity should be a priority on the agenda. One main way to combat this epidemic is creating more opportunities for children or young children to get active and stay fit. Creating opportunities for children and teenagers to exercise and perfect a craft is a good way to help obtain a healthy body and lifestyle. Playing sports has many other benefits besides the physical aspect of it. Brain function, personality, and the inner body are positively affected with exercise and playing a sport like soccer.
Obesity and Mental Health
Obesity and mental health are somewhat related, people who are not in good shape tend to have insecurities and a negative self image . Exercising and living a healthy lifestyle leads to better mental health.Mental health is a serious issue and should not be handled lightly, therefore creating opportunities to combat this is very important. Playing sports relieves stress and helps improves a person’s mental condition. In the brain, exercise stimulates chemicals that improve a person’s mood and the parts of the brain responsible for memory and learning. The more a person exercises, the more benefits come with it. Exercising helps reduce the risks of heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, among other diseases. Exercising also helps with recovery from mental illnesses. When going through mental illness people resort to many different outlets to help with recovery, one of which is through exercising. When exercising, blood is pumped through the brain which helps with the clearing of the mind and makes you think properly. Soccer not only improves mental health, it also improves brain function and health. Soccer combats decline in brain function with age and improves memory and brain abilities (Health Direct, 2017). Sports are a gateway into battling mental health and the obesity rate in the US, which is why participating in sports during high school and college is very beneficial and important.
Survey on Stress
Playing team sports, such as a high school soccer team or soccer club, also benefits the players in the classroom as well. Exercising helps relieve stress and improve brain functionality which would help the players focus more in school (Health Direct, 2017). During finals week students go through a lot of stress dealing with multiple exams and studying many hours for them, practicing and exercising could help students relieve the stress of exams. Seven out of ten adults experience stress or anxiety on a daily basis, according to the ADDA survey on stress (ADAA, 2017). Playing sports and exercising can help deal with anxiety and stress levels by giving an opportunity for the player to sweat things out and focus on another task to help cope with what is going on in their daily lives. High school teams have rules on maintaining a certain GPA to stay on the team and play, which ultimately motivates the players to better in school and keep their GPA above that average.
Finding ways to combat both obesity and mental health issues should be of priority for high schools and colleges in this country. Sports benefit both obesity and mental health as previously mentioned. Being on a team gives a player this feeling of security that they can rely on their teammates and coaches to help them with their problems. Being on a sports team gives the player an opportunity to relieve stress and talk with teammates about their daily lives. Soccer creates more opportunities for young teens to exercise while still improving their character in a good friendly environment.
