A new study has found that fast food consumption may not be the major factor in the rapid increase in childhood obesity.
The study found that fast-food consumption is simply a byproduct of a
much bigger problem: poor all-day-long dietary habits that originate in
children’s homes.
The study was produced by researchers at The University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Gillings School of Global Public Health.
The study’s researchers found that children’s consumption of fast food
is only a small part of a much more pervasive dietary pattern that is
fostered at an early age by children’s parents and caregivers.
The pattern includes few fruits and vegetables, relying instead on high
amounts of processed food and sugar-sweetened beverages. These food
choices also are reinforced in the meals students are offered at school.
“This is really what is driving children’s obesity,” Barry Popkin, PhD,
W.R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor of nutrition at UNC’s Gillings
School of Global Public Health, whose team led the study, said.
“Eating fast foods is just one behavior that results from those bad
habits. Just because children who eat more fast food are the most likely
to become obese does not prove that calories from fast foods bear the
brunt of the blame,” he said.
Fast food not major cause behind childhood obesity
Reviewed by Vinay Chauhan
on
08:51:00
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