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Study finds junk food in schools doesn’t cause weight gain among children


Photo by Johnny Hanson

If you’ve been following the junk food in schools debate, prepare for whiplash.

A new study found an increase in the number of students who attended schools where junk food was sold did not correspond to an increase in student obesity, at least in the 5th and 8th grades.

“We were really surprised by that result and, in fact, we held back from publishing our study for roughly two years because we kept looking for a connection that just wasn’t there,” lead study author Jennifer Van Hook, a professor of Sociology and Demography at Pennsylvania State University, said in a press release.

The study will appear in this month’s issue of Sociology and Education. It uses data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, which followed kids from kindergarten to 8th grade. The researchers broke down that data to look at about 20,000 kids who attended school in the same county from 5th to 8th grades.

The researchers found that while the majority of students attended schools where junk food was sold, and that percentage increased significantly during the time period, there was no rise in the percentage of obesity.

In fact, the number of overweight or obese kids decreased from 39.1 percent in the 5th grade to 35.4 percent in the 8th grade.

The authors speculate that what food a child has available to him or her at home makes more of a difference since they don’t have to pay for it and can spend an unlimited amount of time with it, as opposed to the school cafeteria where their time is limited and the snacks must be paid for.

Not all health officials concerned about childhood obesity are buying the study.

“One poorly designed study does not change the reality that junk food is bad for kids and it’s bad for adults,” said New York City health department spokesman John Kelly told the NY Daily News. “Children develop habits in school that may last a lifetime, so their school environment should consist of access to healthy foods.

Categories: Health
Francisca Ortega

36 Responses

  1. leo says:

    junk food is bad for kids a adults to ………………………….

  2. Fonzi says:

    I believe it, basically because this study also suggest parents love to blame everybody but themselves for letting their kids eat their evenings away.

    • Jennifer M says:

      Agreed. When I was younger, all of us ate these foods too and none of us were fat or even close to it. We had a lot of active time coupled with super metabolisms and it was never an issue in moderation.

  3. lil ol me says:


    in other words, his mind is made up especially since his job depends on it….

    • Sid says:

      It’s called JUNK food for a reason. It’s not healthy, forget what overweight kids eat at home. Why would you feed your child food that can permanent long term damage when there are healthier options available? If you argue over studies that cannot prove there is long term damage..use common sense. Processed food with 50% of daily sugar intake or fruits and vegetables?

    • hotstuffinHouston says:

      I want to see another study. This can’t be accurate.

  4. olivia says:

    Daylight Saving Time does more damage to our health than chocolate and sugar. Google it, then write your congressional representative. Oh wait ! would they do anything anyway. No joke, even the CDC says Daylight Saving Time is a serious health hazard.

    • K17 says:

      Why? It gives kids more daylight to stay outside and be active. Oh thats right, most kids sit inside on the internet or playing video games. Get your kids involved with something outside. Stop blaming junk food and daylight savings time.

    • Kittyg says:

      Amen K17!

  5. L8one says:

    But what about us old fogeys?

  6. SaltWaterCroc says:

    And I’m certain that the increase in availability of junk food (whose ingredients are subsidized by the federal government) and the increase of obesity are not correlated in any way.

  7. Brian says:

    Studies are a joke!

  8. Dave says:

    The overall message kids and parents need to hear is that junk food is junk, regardless of where it is consumed. Our bodies are building and rebuilding cells all day long and look what we are giving our bodies to work with: burgers, fries, pesticides, preservatives, sugar, basically, just junk. The food pyramid is garbage. You want to get healthy and avoid obesity and Type-2 diabetes? Learn to appreciate fruits and vegetables. Its not hard forks, when you consider the incredible task your body is being asked to perform with the food you consume. Vitamin pills are synthetic, not good enough. Get your nutrients from (preferably) raw fruits and veggies and enjoy junk in moderation! You can still have junk, jsut try to limit it to once or twice a week.

  9. westtex says:

    But if that isn’t the case then what will Michelle have to do now that the Child Obesity thing is found to have been a farce?
    Oh well. 12 more months and we will send the Obamas on a permanent vacation!

    • AgonyOfSlumber says:

      Childhood obesity isn’t a farce. The correlation between junk food in schools and childhood obesity is in question, that’s all.

      Why is it such a bad thing that the First Lady is concerned about the health of our children?

    • 98Wrangler says:

      Before Obama took office, I would get my kids McDonald’s kids breakfasts of 2 pancakes and a hash brown on Saturday mornings. After Obama took office, they were forced to stop offering the breakfast option because they said it wasn’t nutritious. Neither of my kids are even slightly overweight and they eat what they want….except caffeinated sodas.

  10. MR says:

    A few little bags of chips here and there does not a tubby kid make.

  11. henrygates says:

    It doesn’t mean it wont cause obesity. It DOES. It just means that the pricey snacks in schools aren’t being consumed enough to make a general difference across the entire school population.

    • Hervoyel says:

      Exactly. It’s been some time since I was in school but I recall that even when the food being offered was junk they at least controlled your portions. Nobody is drinking 32 ounces of soda or eating a whole bag of cookies or chips in school. They’re doing that at home in the afternoons and evenings.

  12. K17 says:

    You ever see the parents of these overweight kids? No exercise, terrible eating habits, no portion control. What do you expect?

  13. lara says:

    Fat kids are fat because of genetics AND what happens at home. Chances are their parents are fat. Chances are there is plenty of food available to them and they are allowed to eat at will. This may be junk food, but it could just as easily be leftovers from the night before. My niece will warm up a plate of leftover spaghetti with meat sauce for her after school snack. I don’t call that a snack. I call it a meal. If she were my child, she would be eating a very light dinner. However, my sister and her husband are both obese, my niece’s BMI is in the 95th percentile, and so she’ll get another big dinner and have seconds. Portion control is the key and it is the responsibility of the parents to teach this.

    Chances are obese kids watch tv more than they go outside. The whole family needs to get outside – walking, bike riding, playing basketball, walking pets, throwing frisbees. It doesn’t matter. Just move! Again, it is the responsibility of the parents to teach this.

    No, it’s not the school’s fault. It’s not the Skittles or M&Ms that teachers have given out one at a time as rewards. It’s not even the bag of chips they have at lunch time. It’s what they learn, or don’t learn, at home.

    • Kittyg says:

      AMEN, Iara! Yes, it is lack of activity and gross overeating due to example or parental laziness!

  14. tonyt says:

    junk food won’t make the kids fat…. the parents do!

  15. Glenn Hitchcock says:

    Exercise is equally important to what we eat. If you eat a very healthy diet but sit at a desk all day (which most kids do these days, or in front of the TV/computer), you will put on weight. We can not ignore the fact that our bodies are made to physically work, and without such work we get fat.

  16. mikebone one says:

    Study funded by Citizens for Bigger Candy Bars.
    Serioiusly it does make kids fat. Ounce for once, pound it is JUNK .
    Two problems- the calorie per weight and the content -a refined laden sugar coated piece of junk that just as importantly nbreaks down more quicly than other foods and floods the system quicly with its’ with nutirennt starved calories,just like the caories in most “refeined ” starches.
    Now IF you do not overeat the stuff, sure it will affect you less from an outward appearance view.
    But evern at that,still insidiously surviving is the fact that you train your kids, at an early age to become sugar dependanet nutrient starved little piggies who will slowly consume more and more and more. Diabetese is rampant. Sugar with their fast acting action are the current prevailing suspect.
    It is gargbae “food” either way you look at it.
    A rather irresponsible way of reporting or researching- headline this misleading piece gives an easy out to for food parents to slop the trough for those bothersome kiddies..

  17. AgonyOfSlumber says:

    When I was in middle/high school, I ate the same thing for lunch every day: chips, a cookie, and one of those sugary fountain drinks (not soda). $0.90 lunch + $2 lunch money = $5 carefully hoarded ‘allowance!’ That didn’t make me overweight. Kids burn a ton of energy, and lunch isn’t going to make them fat. Lack of activity at home and poor choices there…that I believe.

    Which doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do our best to serve healthy foods in schools. I’m just saying that school lunches are far from the main cause of obesity.

  18. Patti says:

    They are fat because the sit on the computer and do no physical exercise. Way to go mom and dad for buying them the laptop, xbox, etc.

  19. Jar says:

    The place to look is on the dining table at home.

  20. chad says:

    I doubt junk food helps; I cannot believe how fat kids are today. Then I see their fat parents waddling around and I see where they get their eating habits from. Don’t blame kids for being fat, blame their fat parents for setting a bad example.

  21. Sid says:

    Sure it does not. Smoking doesn’t kill either, it doesn’t cause cancer. Binge drinking isn’t bad for you…STUDIES have proven that!
    Every kid has a different metabolism, different amount of physical activity and different genetics. If we KNOW junk food is not healthy, why waste time on studies and argue endlessly over it. If it’s not healthy, eliminate it. It doesn’t matter how many of you ate junk all your life. I eat junk all day with no exercise and weigh 125lbs…that doesn’t mean everyone has the luxury of doing that.

  22. TCGates says:

    How can someone argue with this? It is simple logic. Of course “junk food” is not healthy, that is why it is called junk food. Just because it isn’t healthy doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be sold. The simple fact is that it is up to the parents to teach there children proper diet habits. The children at this age would not have the money to buy unhealthy snacks at school if their parents did not give it to them. I can’t stand it when people try to blame schools, government, or anyone else for their own inability to lead a proper life and raise their children to make good choices

  23. starchamber says:

    Cut out the welfare checks and the food stamps. That will force the welfare mothers to buy food with the money that they spend on the kids $180 tennis shoes and the rap records.

  24. Inkanomi says:

    Wow…what a shocker. NOT. Kids don’t spend enough time daily in school with enough free time to chow down enough junk food to make a difference in their weight. Where they get into trouble is at home with a unlimited quantity of goodies to nibble on relentlessly.

  25. Terry says:


    Substitute the word ‘home” for the word school!

  26. dave c says:

    I love the bureaucrat from new York’s comment, I don’t care what the study says, students shouldn’t have access to junk food. Why do lib’s think it’s their place to dictate choices for the rest of us? More importantly, why are politicians so keen to pass laws forcing everyone to live within limits defined by a minority of our citizens?