More than 12 percent of the children and adolescents surveyed got over 40 percent of their calories from fast food, which was defined as “restaurant fast food/pizza”, according to the data brief from the NCHS, a unit of the CDC.
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The report, released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday, shows that the proportion of calories kids get from fast food each day differs by race in the US.
According to the CDC, childhood obesity has “more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents in the past 30 years, ” and consumption of fast food has been linked to weight gain in adults”.
Fast food is known to have a lot of calories, thus a portion of French fries, a burger and a can of soda could account for more than half the calorie intake that a person should have each day.
Clinical Paediatrics published a study past year which showed that children who ate a lot of fast food during fifth grade (at least once a week) had substantially lower academic achievements in mathematics, reading and science by the time they were in eighth grade.
“Childhood doesn’t buffer you against these diseases”, Hassink said.
Field experts worry about these results not only because fast food products have a negative impact on the physical health of an individual, but also because they have a negative impact on the mental health of an individual. That way, parents can simply reheat them and get dinner on the table quickly. Have apples, grapes, whole grain crackers, string cheese sticks. I cooked a meal. Furthermore, dietary habits of kids and teens are influenced, among many factors, by the food and beverage industries. Kids who help grow parsley in an herb garden may be more willing to put it on their plates.
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“When you look at the percentage of calories consumed and whether it made a difference in weight status, [none was] noticed among any of the age groups”, said Stanford, a specialist in obesity, medicine, and nutrition at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School. “Certain fast-food outlets [promote themselves] as being healthier”, she said.
