No Single Factor in Childhood Obesity (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | A recent study of childhood obesity, as reported by The Lookout, proves something I often suspected. There is no single blame for the epidemic of childhood obesity in America.

According to the study of nearly 20,000 middle school-aged kids, those who attend schools that offer junk food for sale have no higher incidence of obesity than those where junk food is prohibited. Of course they don't. It isn't as if kids who are consuming the junk food that is marketed to them at school are doing so all day nor are kids who go to a school that only offers healthy food unable to get their hands on some junk food if they want to.

To indicate what a kid eats at school is a deciding factor as to whether that child will be overweight or not discounts a whole lot of hours and eating that aren't taking place at school. It also denies all of the other factors to one's body weight, including exercise and genetics.

Though not surprised by the focus of the study, some of the other information offered by the research -- done by Pennsylvania State professor Jennifer Hook -- some of the information offered by The Lookout article does surprise me.

Such as the fact schools with a higher percentage of poor children are more likely to offer more junk food. And the statistic that 20 percent of children ages 6 to 11 are obese and that the number of overweight and obese children has quadrupled over the past 25 years. I could figure that obesity had increased quite a bit, given the more sedentary lifestyles of kids and that junk food is a bit more readily available. But what about marketing more junk food to poor populations? Does anyone know why that is?

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/weightloss/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120117/hl_ac/10846721_no_single_factor_in_childhood_obesity

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