A new government report revealed more than one in three American kids will eat fast food such as pizza, fried chicken, tacos or some other dish in a fast-food restaurant today.
"More specifically, 12.1% of these young diners will get more than 40% of their daily calories in the form of fast food," Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published Tuesday. "An additional 10.7% will trace 25% to 40% of their daily calories to a fast-food joint, and 11.6% will get fewer than 25% of their calories from one of these dining establishments."
American youth get an average of 12.4% of their calories on a bun, out of deep fryer or from another characteristically fast-food source on a daily basis, Los Angeles Times reported. The report was based on data from the CDC's 2011-2012 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
"It doesn't matter if these diners are boys or girls. Whether toddlers or teenagers, the proportion of daily calories obtained from fast food was statistically equivalent for both genders," CDC's National Center for Health Statistics informed.
The researchers learned that even weight status had little demeanor on the appetite for fast food. "Children and teens who were underweight or had a normal weight averaged 12.2% of their daily calories in the form of fast food. That was slightly higher than the 11.6% for overweight kids and slightly lower than the 14.6% for obese kids." However, the differences found were not significant enough for the researchers to conclude to say they were acceptable.
It was also found out that there's a significant difference in fast-food consumption based on ethnicity and race. Asian American children consume fewer calories - getting only 8% on any given day on average - from fast food compared to 13.9% for African American kids, 13.1% for white kids and 11.2% for Latino kids. Though, it was emphasized that the differences among non-Asian kids were not statistically significant.
Other significant difference had to do with age. Children between the ages of 2 and 11 ate lesser fast food than adolescents between the ages of 12 and 19.
"On a typical day, fast food accounted for 8.7% of the calories eaten by younger kids, compared with 16.9% for older children. That pattern was seen regardless of gender, race or ethnicity, weight status or family income," the researchers found.
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