U.S. Child Population Is Consuming Fast Food Daily
The CDC revealed that above 30% of the U.S. child population is consuming fast food daily. While consumption was different based on age and race, it reveals a very concerning truth about our great country: we do not and seem to not know how to educate our children into not eating fast food regularly and not getting obese.
The conclusion was drawn based on data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey that occurred in between 2011 and 2012. A number of scientists have discovered that approximately 34% of children whose ages vary from 2 to 19 are eating fast food daily. What is also very worrying is that fast food represents 12% of how many calories they eat every day.
The first outrageous discovery is that there are two year olds who are consuming fast food. Babies are literally educated into eating fast food for their entire lives and increasing their obesity chances from a very tender age. This should be our first and utmost concern: to not make children understand that eating fast food is a normal activity. Yes, we can always enjoy some McDonald’s, but not every day.
The results are quite interesting when it comes to racial studies. It seems that Asian children and teenagers have a considerably lower fast food intake than the rest of the younger population. 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 almost double the amount.
Non-Hispanic black children have an overall 13.9% fast food intake followed by the non-Hispanic white children with 13.1%. In the end, Hispanic children present an 11.2% fast food consumption. It is the closest value to their Asian peers, but still very high.
It fell as no surprise that older adolescents had adopted a larger consumption compared to the younger children. The average calory consumption percentage for teenagers who were 12 of age or older amounted to 16.7% while those aged in between 2 to 11 years old consumed half: 8.7%.
The study raises awareness regarding fast-food consumption and how much of a nuisance it has become. Caloric intake has risen from 1994 to 2006 by 3%, from 10% to 13%, and it continues to do so even to this day. It is time that we left out comfort zone behind and taught children how to eat appropriately. It is better to teach your child how to cook from the age of 4 or 5 than to teach him to eat from McDonald’s at the age of 2.
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