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40% of Kids’ Calories are from Junk Food

28 Replies

Wondering why childhood obesity is running rampant?

Now you know.

They’re eating crap. This, according to statistics compiled by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey  (NHANES) and reported by ABC News.

Half of the fattening calories come from just 6 foods:

  1. Soda
  2. Sugary fruit drinks
  3. Grain desserts, such as cake, cookies and donuts
  4. Dairy desserts such as ice cream
  5. Pizza
  6. Whole milk, which is far fattier than skim.

We’re surprised french fries are not on the list.

Why is this happening to us and how can we stop it?

What you need to know:

There are multiple reasons for childhood obesity:

  • nutritionally deficient school lunches (based on subsidized crops)
  • cheap fast food (based on subsidized crops)
  • commercials for kids featuring junk food (made from subsidized crops)
  • parents that don’t have enough time to cook and can prepare a microwave meal in 5 minutes from frozen entrees (based on cheap subsidized crops)

So how do we get kids to eat healthier food?

Perhaps the USDA should start subsidizing fruits and vegetables other than corn and soy. But the agro-lobbies are too powerful for anyone to battle.  Our Congress and Senate won’t tackle them, nor will the president.

Oh well, at least Mrs. Obama is spearheading Let’s Move, a well intended but guaranteed-to-fail program to end childhood obesity within one generation.

Sorry for the rant, but we really needed to vent after seeing these stats.

Soda
Sugary fruit drinks
Grain desserts, such as cake, cookies and donuts
Dairy desserts such as ice cream
Pizza
Whole milk, which is far fattier than skim.

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  • http://www.feedyourheaddiet.com Ken Leebow

    This was the headline of one email that I received this AM:

    “McDonald’s sales, earnings gains and hiked dividend set to extend stock’s all-time high”

    They can show this (http://bit.ly/afD2kL) anti-McDonald’s commercial as much as they want, but it makes no difference. People are lovin’ McDonald’s.

    And as a professional observer of our toxic food environment, I state:

    Sorry to be the “Grinch” who stole Halloween, but since August, I’ve been observing an overload of candy!

    On a recent trip to my neighborhood CVS pharmacy (we have 3 within one mile of each other), I was not sure if I entered a candy store or a drug store.

    That 66% figure the CDC keeps quoting (overweight and obese Americans) is because of our toxic food environment … Halloween candy for three months and then we’re off to the next overeating holiday.

    And the frosting on the cake … Those delicious cookies the Girl Scouts are selling…loaded with trans fats.

    If I worked for big pharma, I’d be lovin’ it.

    Ken Leebow
    http://www.partiallyhydrogenated.com

    P.S. Unfortunately, I think we are all “preaching to the choir”. And the congregants ain’t paying attention.

    • Fatbelly

      I love getting fatter and watching my guts getting softer and its getting harder to walk

  • http://www.theslowcook.com Ed Bruske

    Your placing the fat in whole milk in the “junk food” category? That’s so last century. Fat came under fire in the late 70s supposedly becaused it caused heart disease. Now we know that’s not true. It’s sugar and other carbs that cause heart disease, along with obesity, diabetes, hypertension, the so-called metabolic syndrome. Fat, along with protein, is an essential macronutrient, and the fat in milk is essential to the metabolism of the other nutrients in the milk. Perhaps, then, we need to re-examine why, exactly, we’ve demonized milk fat.

  • http://www.consumethisfirst.com cat

    Ed, I was thinking the same thing, although I don’t think Fooducate is putting it on the list, rather the survey did. I don’t believe whole milk makes kids fat, more likely it’s the chocolate milk or Caramel Macchiatos. Like Fooducate, I’m wondering where the french fries are.

  • http://www.theomep.com Wet Wolf

    Most kids really do eat like this. However if a kid is at football practice after school there is a greater reduced risk of feeding the flab.

  • Lea G

    Maybe we should make it easier and more important in this country for at least one parent to stay home so they have time to prepare healthful meals.

  • Lea G

    Kids need full fat whole milk for proper brain development. The fat in this milk is far from the culprit making kids obese. I agree that it is a surprise French fries are not on the list, especially when whole milk is.

  • http://www.spoonfedblog.net Christina @ Spoonfed

    What Ed said. When I first saw this survey a couple weeks ago, I couldn’t believe they’d lumped whole milk in with these other “foods.” Even mainstream science has now come around to understanding that saturated fat is not the devil that food marketers and industry-funded nutritionists have long touted. That said, the milk served in schools is usually so processed and adulterated that it retains very little nutrients anyway, so I might very well put that in the junk-food category. But to demonize whole milk in general is seriously misguided.

  • Brooke

    @ Wet Wolf

    I think I actually ate worse when I had after-school activities because I would eat snacks/dinner from the vending machine, 7-11, or the McDonalds down the street. Just a thought for parents of busy teens . . .

  • Bill McNye

    Fries are not on the list because kids get most of their calories from home. Despite the vilification of outside influences on our kids, it is still what the parent purchase that is the most important. (note: outside influences are important, just not nearly as much as the inside sources.)

    Also, I second Lea G’s comments on having one parent stay home. We are eating much better since my wife left her job to stay home with the kids. This also means that we are in control of what our kids eat during the day too.

  • Jill

    @Lea G
    REALLY??? You cant be serious.

  • Jill

    @Lea G
    Cows milk is for baby cows. Im guessing you havent done your research on cows and milk… thinking you probably dont have any kids either. Ever wonder why girls these days are having their periods at the age of 9 and 10? A little too much milk-meant-for-baby-cows-pumped-with-hormones perhaps

  • Lynsey

    Whole milk is really only needed for development within the first year of life. After that 2% or below is recommended. Its the extra sugar in foods that causes obesity. Of all the foods on this list whole milk is the least of anyone’s worries. Most kids won’t drink milk anyway unless it is flavored and that has added sugar. Overeating and not exercising is what causes obesity. Moderation is always the key to a healthy weight and life. There are just so many environmental factors that need to be changed in order to keep our kids healthy. We have an extremely long road ahead and I highly doubt any governmental program will fix this epidemic.

  • Lynsey

    @Ed Bruske
    I agree. milk fat is the least of our worries with all the other junk out there. Fat is the cause of heart disease. If the body does not use excess sugar and carbs they turn into fat. A high fat diet is an indirect factor to causing heart disease.

  • David C

    Instead of suggesting additional subsidies (and their unintended consequences), wouldn’t the better idea be to end subsidies altogether?

  • Kathy

    It does NOT take a long time to make a healthy meal. A little forethought, or willingness to accept a nuked potato, salad mix with dressing, and sauteed thinly cut meat. Or pasta with frozen veggies and Parmesan and frozen pregrilled chicken breast. It’s not like healthy choices aren’t out there. It’s that we as parents aren’t willing to let our kids be hungry if they refuse healthy food. In addition, we’re celebrating their birthdays every freaking year! Did you have a big party every year when you were a kid? Now, multiply that times all their friends.

  • http://www.SoupMagic.com Ann Duncan

    Fat the cause of heart disease??? That info is quite outdated, no thanks to big biz/big pharma/all who profit from said heart disease. Fats such as coconut oil, butter, fats from ‘real’ sustainably raised animals (NON-hydrogenated, of course!) are actually very important for heart health.

    Here’s a vid clip by an MD on child obesity:
    http://diabeteswarrior.tumblr.com/post/1373576426/westmanvid

    Is milk good for children? That SO depends!

    So-called milk from factory farmed cows (grocery store milk), along with all its antibiotics and growth hormones and other contaminants, is void of anti-microbial enzymes, bio-available vitamins, bio-available calcium, etc, and does more harm than good.

    Unprocessed milk from real farms where the cows are actually on pasture, minus the hormones, etc? Incredibly healthful! Especially the full fat milk, as the fat plays a very important role in assimilating nutrients, etc in the milk. And it’s not ‘fattening’!

    This unprocessed (raw) milk has benefited our family and friends (of all ages) and lots of acquaintances greatly! It has healed lactose intolerance, helped clear up asthma, allergies and many other issues.

    Preparing truly nutritious meals can be more time-consuming, and I’m glad to see more and more resources for people who want to find shortcuts and ways they can increasingly work healthy food prep into their lifestyle. Here are a few:

    http://culturedfoodlife.com/
    http://www.cheeseslave.com/
    http://www.westonaprice.org/
    http://kellythekitchenkop.com/
    http://www.soupmagic.com/

    Blessings…

  • http://www.diningdetails.com Julie

    Lea is right. Kids need full fat milk. People would be a lot better off if they gave up the skim (aka overly processed) milk, they’d be a lot healthier. “Skimming” the fat off milk and over processing it makes it more of a concoction of water and lactose, or sugar. Without the fat, the body treats skim milk like another sugar drink. It’s definitely NOT full fat milk making kids fat.

  • Anne

    Kids only need full fat milk before age 2. After that, it isn’t necessary.

  • Brooke

    To all readers in regards to Ann Duncan’s comments: Please, please, PLEASE do not give your child raw milk! If you (as a healthy adult) want to believe in antedotal evidence and give it a try for yourself knowing the risks invovled, go ahead. Children do not understand such risks and can succumb to foodborne illness more rapidly and with greater long-term effects than an adult may. If you are considering raw milk, please see:

    http://www.realrawmilkfacts.com

  • http://www.theslowcook.com Ed Bruske

    The “fat hypothesis’–that fat causes heart disease–has been thoroughly debunked. Although it was easy to believe that the fat you saw on your T-bone was clogging your arteries, the truth is something quite different, although a bit counterintuitive. The real, now finally getting its day in court, shows that sugar and refined carbs are the true culprits behind all those modern ills: bad cholesterol, high triglyceride levels, hypertension, coronary artery disease. And, yes, even obesity. The folks who continue to peddle the fat myth have a lot to answer for.

  • http://www.whosmydaddy.wordpress.com Cassie

    @Lea, in a perfect world, one parent could stay home, but really, in this economy and with people spending more than they make, how can that be possible for everyone?

  • Cactus Wren

    @Kathy
    Nice idea, Kathy. I’m glad you live in an area where you can get pasta, and salad greens, and salad dressing, and “frozen pregrilled chicken breast”. Now get back to me after you’ve spend a few months living in an inner-city food desert where the nearest supermarket is an hour’s bus ride away.

  • Jo

    In the picture shouldn’t the kid be getting taller, not shorter? After all fat usually makes people grow.

    • kris

      kids mostly grow when they get slimmer and because its in there DNA. but since his body is expanding across< he's getting shorter

  • Cupcake

    this is what happens to you… Don’t eat cookies cake donuts pizza etc anymore because it makes you fat. Exersise like me everyday and i’m not fat

  • Liliana

    i want to feel what i to be fat,i want my weight to be 1000000000000000000000000512487,i dont like to be ANORECXIC!!!

  • Hi

    Good message all over my school there’s a bunch of fat kids mostly in 5th grade There’s also APPS that encourage fat ppl r messed up i put photos in from an app that makes ppl look fat