In the past, I knew a group of friends who were lucky enough to have parents that decided to invest in piano lessons when they were growing up. Like me, their parents harangued them to practice daily, we knew that in order to become proficient, and to progress, we had to practice as much as possible. In fact, parents believe that to achieve certain milestones in any aspect of their children’s lives, practice does make things better and easier at times too. Most people believe that there is a correlation between obesity and piano lessons, because they need to be very disciplined in order to curb obesity, which is exactly the same when it comes to playing piano much better.
Go On a Diet
Statistics show that obesity is very high in the United States and parents are teaching their children to eat better and healthier to avoid unwarranted weight gain. Therefore, the first thing that parents teach their children is to go on a diet, if they feel that their son or daughter has gained weight. In the case of piano playing, to ensure that children are improving their ability to play, they need to set aside at least 30 to 45 minutes per day to practice. In some cases, there are children who play two to three times a day just to make sure that they are good enough to be picked to perform in a recital, for instance.
Rates on the Decline
Unbelievably, while it is recorded that the childhood obesity rate is extremely high; many studies recently have shown that the rates are actually on the decline. There are a few reasons for this, such as the following:
Exercise Programs
Numerous exercise programs are being organized regularly by multiple organizations and companies to help curb childhood obesity. Programs like these entail several childcare centers to encourage children to live healthier lifestyles and to get involved in various sports activities.
Increased Breastfeeding
Latest statistics from CDC claim that more mothers have been breastfeeding their babies. As you already know, breastfeeding has many benefits including a reduced probability that breastfed children will become obese. A number of experts have also claimed that this is one of the main reasons why the childhood obesity rate is slowly decreasing.
Better Nutrition
I find that there have been various programs all over the country that tout the advantages of healthy eating or foods. These programs discourage parents from relying on sugar-laden, inexpensive, high-calorie food items to feed their growing children. For example, the WIC (Women, Infants and Children)’s Supplemental Nutrition Program, has overhauled itself to become more aligned with current dietary guidelines.
Alterations to these program types are particularly essential for families with a low-income in neighborhoods where fresh food items are more costly or are unavailable because there are not many supermarkets around. Additionally, more schools in these regions are serving healthier lunches and snacks, including better vending machine offerings. Hospitals and restaurants are constantly updating their menus to serve healthier foods.
Piano Lessons
As aforementioned, there are interesting ties between piano lessons and childhood obesity. To be much improved as a piano player, you need to find the right “diet”; in this case it can be the right piano teacher or the right schedule. This can be done more easily by conducting several interviews with a number of candidates in your area. It will definitely help if you obtain a few referrals to crosscheck with reference to how good the candidates are with their students.
What interesting ties do you know of between childhood obesity and piano lessons?