Super-sized fries. Super-sized sodas. Super-sized children.

In today’s fast food culture, childhood obesity has become an epidemic.

According to the American Obesity Association, approximately one-third of children are overweight and of that percent, half are obese.

With more children playing Playstation over basketball and asking for a new game instead of new sneakers, these developing young adults are not getting the proper exercise or nutrition they need on a daily basis to live healthy lives in the future, spreading the epidemic of a widening waistline.

Currently, the Miami-Dade County School Board is reviewing the existing three-year middle school physical education requirement. An advisory committee met in 2005 to establish a comprehensive Wellness Program. They created a three-year or 225 minute per week mandate for all middle school students. The item was brought before the board in May 2006 and implemented in August of the same year.

However, because only three months lapsed before the mandate was reviewed by the Board in November, there was not enough time between implementation and assessment to evaluate the effects.

In the fall of last year, parents of band students complained that the requirement did not allow their children to engage in other electives. The first solution presented during the December board meeting was to eliminate the requirement altogether.

This “solution” is really no solution at all but just a step in the wrong direction for the country whose nickname is the “fast food nation.”

If we eliminate physical activity during the school day, the majority of students will be devoid of any fitness. When students return home from a sedentary day of tests and quizzes and must begin their homework, there is minimal time left for exercising.

Studies show that brain activity and brain development are enhanced by physical exercise. Therefore, if we provide students with the opportunity to engage in physical fitness, we will also afford them with a chance to enhance their performance in the classroom.

A survey of American schoolchildren found that 96 percent could identify Ronald McDonald, the symbol of fast food fat. The only fictional character with a higher degree of recognition was Santa Claus.

The statistics speak for themselves. The obesity epidemic is spreading, and reducing physical activity in schools is not the cure.