The study followed almost 20,000 students from KINDERGARTEN to eight grade in 1,000 public and private schools. The researchers examined the children’s weight and found that in the eighth grade, 35.5% of children in schools with junk food overweight while 21.6 per cent of people in schools without excess weight-increase statistically insignificant. In other words, children with access to junk food in school is no more weight than those who do not.
Middle schoolers is not that doesn’t eat junk food; Indeed they are, like most Americans. It is that most of the junk food they eat does not come through the school. “School represented only a fraction of the children’s food environment,” said Jennifer Van Hook, Professor of sociology and demography at the Pennsylvania State University and the main author of the study.
The same may not apply to high school students are more independent and have more income (and therefore more control over what they eat). “They can get food at home, they can get food in their environment, and they could go across the street from the school to buy food. In addition, children are really very busy at school … Actually there’s not much chance for children to eat when they are in school, or at least eat relentlessly, than when they are at home. As a result, whether or not junk food available to them at school may not have much bearing on how much junk food that they eat, “Van Hook said in a statement released by the American Sociological Association.
The study, “Competitive food sales in schools and child obesity: A Longitudinal study,” journal published in Sociology of education. Politicians and parents have called in recent years for various actions, including the so-called “fat tax” on soda and even outright ban on candy and junk food sold in schools. This research shows that money spent on efforts to reduce obesity would be much more effective in other areas, such as encouraging parents to choose healthy foods for their children.