Regardless of their bad reputation, junk food, fast food and soda are not the major cause of the obesity epidemic in the United States, Cornell University researchers argue.

While these sugar-filled and salt-laden foods might not be good for your health, experts found no serious difference when it comes to how much of these foods are consumed by either overweight or people with normal weight. The real problem, according to the researchers is the fact that too many Americans eat too much.

David Just, lead researcher and co-director of the Cornell Center for Behavioral Economics in Ithaca, N.Y. said that these foods are without a doubt harmful for you and consuming too much of these would make you fat. However, it doesn't seem to be the root cause why people are overweight and obese.  

About 95 percent of the total U.S population, they seem to see connection between how much fast food and junk food they're eating and their weight. This is due to our bad habits with all our food, and just cutting down these foods won't solve the problem. Just isn't implying that it's OK to eat junk foods though. He added saying, there is no better argument why you should have soda in your diet.

Just and his colleague Brian Wansink, director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab, used the 2007-2008 National Household and Nutrition Examination Survey to analyze a sample of about 5,000 adults in the United States.

They found no connection to weight gain by merely having soda, candy and fast food in the diet of 95 percent of the population. The exception, however, are the people who are on both extreme ends of the weight spectrum. Those who are very underweight and those who are critically obese, are the folks who ate more fast food and fewer fruits and vegetables, the study shows.