DRUG, ALCOHOL USE DOWN AMONG SCHOOLKIDS, SUGGESTS SURVEY

One In Six Children Are Overweight

If the health of B.C. schoolkids could be summed up in a school
progress report, it would read "improving, but needs to work harder."

B.C.'s top doctor said Friday that drug and alcohol use are down, as
are teen pregnancies. But stress levels are up, along with obesity and
sexually transmitted diseases.

"In the long run, we need healthier adults," said Dr. Perry Kendall.
"If you start with healthy children, you'll get healthy adults."

In surveys, 95 per cent of students rated their own health as
excellent in more urban areas, but the figure fell to 87 per cent in
some rural areas.

Overall, students in the interior and northern B.C. consistently
scored lower than in the Lower Mainland and southern Vancouver Island
in health categories.

Kendall said he's concerned about increasing stress and weight
problems.

Roughly one in six kids is overweight, a number that has increased
over the past decade due to the lack of physical activity and the time
spent on the web, he said.

"I think it's shown in the increasing overweight and the decreasing
physical activity," said Kendall.

"We've sort of engineered a society where the advertising is about
your thirst, super-size it -- and you spend more time in front of a
screen and doing less activity. What we need to do is re-engineer back
to the healthy behaviours."

While teen drinking is steady overall, 45 per cent of under-aged teens
say they binge drink.

"If you look in the liquor stores at the amount of coolers and
vodka-chocolate pre-mixers, there's been a big increase in sales
there, and a lot of that increase in sales is going to young people,"
Kendall said.

Girls are doing better in school than boys and have better social
networks, but still have problems with their body image.

At Burnaby's Alpha Secondary School, which has 850 students,
17-year-old Cody Tibbitts said he plays rugby and takes gym at school.

"It's the student's choice keeping healthy," said Tibbitts. "All the
priorities should not be put on somebody else."

Paula Nicoli, 17, said she doesn't do much physical activity, but
spends a lot of time on Facebook chatting with her friends online.

"I don't exercise at school," said Nicoli. "I just go home, go on the
computer."

Alpha principal Brian Jackson said his students face many complex
pressures but are eating better and exercising.

"Students have a much more complex life than they did in the past," he
said.

Jackson said kids may be under more pressure at school, in their home
life and by peers.