Kids really do live on fast-food diet, study finds

The study showed kids and teens ages 2 through 19 got an average of 12 percent of their daily calories from fast food restaurants.

It’s no secret that fast food is not good for you, but every day, thousands of Americans- and thousands of children- continue to eat it.

Out of all the children, teens consumed the most calories from fast food.

Researchers and health experts agree that these products are rich in calories and that they play a major role in the overweight and obesity epidemic.

More specifically, 12.1% of these young diners will get more than 40% of their daily calories in the form of fast food.

This study comes from data collected by the National Center for Health Statistics, who now say that fast food “has been associated with higher caloric intake and poorer diet quality”, within the group aged 2 to 19.

Fast food is more than just a guilty pleasure for many children, according to a government study.

Given the high obesity rates in children, officials have forwarded one bill proposal which stated that fast food chain-restaurants should lower the fat and sodium contents as well as the calories in fast food meals that are intended for children. We’ve probably all encountered the McDonald’s “I’m Lovin’ It” jingle and the white-goateed Colonel Sanders of KFC at least once, if not hundreds, of times.

She said the findings should not alter clinical practice, but that clinicians should caution their patients to avoid eating outside the home wherever possible.

The researchers also looked into the impact of fast food calorie consumption, taking into consideration the race of the participants.

Nor did the CDC find a connection between weight and fast-food consumption. “They’re less likely to be indoctrinated into numerous popular [habits] here, like eating fast food”, said Stanford. The CDC compiled its data from 3,100 extensive questionnaires given to American children and their parents in 2011 and 2012, asking what they had eaten in the last 24 hours. The overall fast food intake for Asians aged in between 2 to 19 amounts to 8% while non-Hispanics and Hispanics have easy tendencies for nearly double the amount.