Nintendo Wii Helps Fight Obesity and Overweight Children and Adults

It's no secret that Americans are growing fatter. Percentages are creeping up for adults and children. For children, being overweight, or being an obese child is challenging and has risks of a greater likelihood of consequential diseases.

Playing video games has been mostly a sedentary activity. But now that Nintendo Wii is here, children and adults alike can workout and have a video game at the same time. With a Wii Remote and the Nintendo Wii system, players can purchase games that are specifically designed to get people up off their chairs and do some exercise. This is a terrific step towards a regular exercise program. Although swinging a Wii remote to emulate throwing a bowling ball may not be the same as an hour jog through a park, it's a very meaningful thing to do to improve health if someone has been completely sedentary for a long time.

This coming June, Nintendo has announced a new game called Brunswick Pro Bowling with realistic sounds and a complete bowling experience. There is also a Mario game for the Wii guaranteed to have everyone jumping, stooping, bending and just plain moving around. This too, according to Nintendo.Com is intended for release in May of 2007.

Nintendo's Wii system has also been donated to YMCA branches around the country - and they will use them in various fitness programs. Seniors are using the Wii to workout in their residences.

As anyone who has ever tried to lose weight knows, this is a difficult battle. As Americans grow fatter, we are now also looking collectively in the mirror and we don't necessarily like what we see. The media is full of statistics. The National Center for Health Statistics, part of the CDC - Center for Disease Control, has statistics that are remarkable. Although the newest numbers are from 1999-2002, they showed at that time that an "estimated 16 percent of children and adolescents ages 6-19 years are overweight. As shown in table 1, this represents a 45 percent increase from the overweight estimates of 11 percent obtained from NHANES III (1988-94)."

A Wii Workout is just the ticket for re-entry into physical fitness. Fun and exercise are a great combination. If being indoors and video games are your pleasure, or you child's pleasure - consider some of the games available with Wii - like bowling, tennis, golf, etc. With more and more titles coming out, the menu of games to move with will be expanding. Join the fun and start your Wii Wii Workout. Exercise and fight obesity with Nintendo Wii.