A new study from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention says that more than one in three American kids eat fast food daily. The report was published in CDC's website on Tuesday and it covered the period of 2011 to 2012 based on the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
Fast food has been dubbed as one of the culprits on today's growing predicament on obesity. According to the World Health Organization, globally, around 39 % of adults aged 18 and over were overweight and 13% are obese in 2014. Among kids, 42 million who are ages five years old and below are obese wherein 31% come from developing countries.
The study was conducted by Dr. Sundeep Vikraman, Dr. Cheryl D. Fryar and Dr. Cynthia L. Ogden from the CDC. Their key findings showed that 12.1% of young Americans eating in fast food chains would get more than 40% of their daily caloric intake from fast food alone, reports Ischoolguide.
In the study period, the caloric intake from these restaurants was higher in teens aged 12 to 1 than those kids aged 2 to 11 years old. In terms of race, Non-Hispanic asians kids had lower caloric intake from fast food chains compared to Non-Hispanic white, Non-Hispanic black and Hispanic children.
They also found out that there were no significant differences in terms of caloric intake from fast food chains among children in terms of age, weight status, economic status and sex.
According to the Obesity Action Coalition, in a report by Sarah Muntel, obesity can be caused by a variety of factors. There is no definite answer as to its exact cause but eating in fast food restaurants and the environment they live in could contribute to weight gain.
In fact, since the 1970s, the number of fast food chains has doubled and now, there is an estimated 300,000 establishments in the United States alone. With the growing number of these restaurants, the number of obese people has also doubled since the 1980s.