We all need a place to walk to

Having a place to walk to supports health, fitness and weight control

Childhood obesity has tripled in the last few decades, and if we were playing the blame game the obesogenic environment would be my target.

An obesogenic environment is one that makes it easy to take in lots of calories and spend fewer of them.

Its components include a setting with lots of high calorie tempting food around, mass media that promotes that food, and role models such as parents, friends or influencers engaging in eating habits that lead to weight gain.

But on top of the high-calorie food excesses, obesogenic environments support sedentary lifestyle and make it the default.

Kids are affected by their families, friends, home environment and their virtual – online – reality.

But they’re also a reflection of the place they live in.

Does a walkable neighborhood make you thin?

People in Manhattan and Paris are thinner than average. Does walking have anything to do with it? 

Neighborhood design can affect the way people behave, and when it comes to kids’ time outdoors, the ability to walk, bike and play outside may predict how often this actually happens.

What’s a walkable neighborhood? It’s pedestrian friendly – with safe sidewalks, well-connected streets, fewer busy intersections, and tree-shaded lanes. A walkable neighborhood has destinations to walk to: friends’ homes, parks, shops, schools, jobs, transit stops. A walkable neighborhood has safe streets to stroll.

Walkable neighborhoods have many benefits: They are happier, better for the environment (your feet don’t emit), help build a community, and they’re also healthier.

Unfortunately, many new suburbs were built as a subdivisions, around a cul-de-sac, with streets that empty into a busy road that’s hard to cross, and not within walking distance to schools, shopping or entertainment.

Does that affect the lives of suburban kids? Several studies show a correlation between neighborhood walkability and physical activity, obesity, as well as the incidence of type 2 diabetes.

But here’s the thing: People who enjoy walking and who are health conscious may chose to live in a walkable neighborhood – where you live isn’t random. Several studies which use sophisticated matching techniques find that the residential selection bias is modest, though, and when correcting for it, the link between walk-friendly neighborhoods and weight status still stands.

A new meta-analysis in Obesity Reviews examines how streets’ characteristics affect physical activity in kids, and to do so the researchers collected and analyzed all 47 relevant studies on the topic. The analysis found that living in streets that connect to other many other streets and create a network – as opposed to subdivisions and cul-de-sacs that empty into a major artery – is associated with kids engaging in more physical activity.

Walk safe

Our food environment has changed, but so have our neighborhoods. Too many neighborhoods aren’t walkable, and walking them isn’t always safe.

And here’s another disturbing statistic: While driving a car in the US is becoming safer and safer, year after year, walking is becoming less so. Pedestrian deaths rose by 50 percent in the last decade – in 2018 pedestrian deaths rose again by 3.4 percent, cyclist fatalities by 6.3 percent, continuing this alarming trend.

We need to fight for a better food environment.

But an environment that promotes health is also one that enables and entices kids to be active, to use their feet; it requires safe sidewalks, safe streets, parks and public green spaces where a kid can run and play in real life.

Yeah, I know, both these challenges are no small feat.

Dr. Ayala