Encouraging children to use interactive computer games such as the Nintendo Wii will become part of a public health drive to tackle rising rates of obesity amongst the young according to The Times.
The findings of a pilot project in the East Midlands show that playing interactive games could increase the number of calories burnt by 42%. Active play for 60 minutes would burn 7½lb of fat (we love quantifying everything in Fatville).
Of course, this report came hot on the heels of the furore surrounding the Government’s Change4Life ad, which depicted a child playing video games underneath the caption ‘Risk an early death, just do nothing’.
Cue collective knickers in a twist from the games industry, with threats of legal action and accusations of classism and snobbery, citing that reading books is hardly an intensive calorie burning exercise (and illustrated by one Twitter wit).
From a Fatville perspective, it’s a tricky one. Running on a touch sensitive pad watching a cartoon figure of yourself replicating your movements on your plasma screen would probably be a symptom of Strange Activity.
Strange as it may be, movement that kids enjoy is very much an antidote to Fatville.
Who knows: it could help offset the damage that reading can do to one’s body (we’re just kidding)