Kids who play the latest physically challenging video games expend energy at levels that might help protect them from becoming overweight and boost their heart health at the same time, according to a new study.
Children burn roughly four times as many calories per minute playing a physically active video game, such as Wii Sports, than playing a seated game, and their heart rate is much higher, say Robin Mellecker and Alison McManus of the Institute for Human Performance at the University of Hong Kong.
Their report appears in the latest issue of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.
These observations are "important because electronic entertainment is not going away," Dr. Russell Pate of the University of South Carolina, Columbia, wrote in a commentary in the journal.
"If we want to promote physical activity in the context of contemporary society, we will have to fight fire with fire. Physically active video gaming may be part of the antidote to the poisonous growth of sedentary entertainment," Pate said.
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