Health News
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- Study Says Overweight Kids Become Overweight Teens
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By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News Kentucky children are some of the nation's fattest. In 2011, the last year for which data are complete, Kentucky ranked sixth in the U.S. in the percentage of obese 2-to 4-year-olds from low-income families...
- Convenience, Not Expense, Is Making Us Avoid Eating Fruits, Vegetables And Other Non-processed Foods
A lack of convenience, not a high price, is the major obstacle to getting people to eat more fruit and vegetables, a study published in the journal Public Health Nutrition has found. The study analyzed the fruit and vegetable consumption in six low-income,...
Health News
Study finds students with heavy fast-food diets have test scores about 20% lower than those who don't east fast food
Eating fast food may cause lower test scores in school, says a recent study of U.S. school children.
The study, published online in the journal Clinical Pediatrics, found that "The more frequently children reported eating fast food in fifth grade, the lower their growth in reading, math and science test scores by the time they reached eighth grade," says an Ohio State University news release.
Specifically, the study found that children who ate fast food four to six times per week, or every day, had test-score gains in all three achievement areas that were about 20 percent less than those of children who did not eat any fast food in the week before the survey.
?There?s a lot of evidence that fast-food consumption is linked to childhood obesity, but the problems don?t end there,? said Kelly Purtell, lead author of the study and assistant professor of human sciences at Ohio State. ?Relying too much on fast food could hurt how well children do in the classroom.?
The study included 11,740 students who were tested in reading/literacy, mathematics and science in both fifth and eighth grades. They were also given a food consumption questionnaire in fifth grade.
The researchers tried to accounted for many other reasons that might have influenced the results, including how much children exercised, how much television they watched, what other foods they ate, their family?s socioeconomic status, and characteristics of their neighborhood and school, according to the release.
While this study establishes a correlation between fast-food consumption and lower grades, it does not establish the cause of lower grades. However, Purtell said she and the other authors are "confident fast food explains some of the difference in achievement gains over time."
Other studies have suggested that it may be related to a lack of nutrients found in fast food, such as iron, and another study suggests that diets high in fat and sugar, found in most fast food, hurt immediate memory and learning processes, the news release says.
?We?re not saying that parents should never feed their children fast food, but these results suggest fast-food consumption should be limited as much as possible,? Purtell said.
The study, published online in the journal Clinical Pediatrics, found that "The more frequently children reported eating fast food in fifth grade, the lower their growth in reading, math and science test scores by the time they reached eighth grade," says an Ohio State University news release.
?There?s a lot of evidence that fast-food consumption is linked to childhood obesity, but the problems don?t end there,? said Kelly Purtell, lead author of the study and assistant professor of human sciences at Ohio State. ?Relying too much on fast food could hurt how well children do in the classroom.?
The study included 11,740 students who were tested in reading/literacy, mathematics and science in both fifth and eighth grades. They were also given a food consumption questionnaire in fifth grade.
The researchers tried to accounted for many other reasons that might have influenced the results, including how much children exercised, how much television they watched, what other foods they ate, their family?s socioeconomic status, and characteristics of their neighborhood and school, according to the release.
While this study establishes a correlation between fast-food consumption and lower grades, it does not establish the cause of lower grades. However, Purtell said she and the other authors are "confident fast food explains some of the difference in achievement gains over time."
Other studies have suggested that it may be related to a lack of nutrients found in fast food, such as iron, and another study suggests that diets high in fat and sugar, found in most fast food, hurt immediate memory and learning processes, the news release says.
?We?re not saying that parents should never feed their children fast food, but these results suggest fast-food consumption should be limited as much as possible,? Purtell said.
- As School-lunch Debate Puts Attention On Rejected Meals, We Might Consider A Bigger Problem: Food Wasted At Home
The new nutrition rules for school meals have led some students to throw away food they're served. Schools across the country are estimated to waste $1.2 billion worth of food every year, based on extrapolations from a study the National Institutes...
- Ket Series To Explore How Chemistry, Technology, Fast Food, "supersizing," Marketing, And Lobbying Have Made Us Fat
KET will air a three-part series, "Men Who Made Us Fat," in which Jacques Peretti blames American obesity on high-fructose corn syrup, fast food, "supersizing," marketing, and lobbying. In the first episode Jacques Peretti looks at how decisions...
- Study Says Overweight Kids Become Overweight Teens
If a child is overweight in kindergarten, she probably will be in eighth grade, says a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. And if your baby was heavy at birth, it has a greater chance of being fat. It found overweight kindergartners...
- Ky., High In Childhood Obesity, Fights It With Better School Meals, Increased Activity Requirements And Maybe Help From Big Bird
By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News Kentucky children are some of the nation's fattest. In 2011, the last year for which data are complete, Kentucky ranked sixth in the U.S. in the percentage of obese 2-to 4-year-olds from low-income families...
- Convenience, Not Expense, Is Making Us Avoid Eating Fruits, Vegetables And Other Non-processed Foods
A lack of convenience, not a high price, is the major obstacle to getting people to eat more fruit and vegetables, a study published in the journal Public Health Nutrition has found. The study analyzed the fruit and vegetable consumption in six low-income,...