Junk food in school: Not a reason for weight gain among Kids

Washington, Jan 18: As per a new study soda, chips, chowmein and other junk foods commonly found in school canteens are not the cause of weight gain among children-at least for middle school students.

The study is based on data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999, which follows a nationally representative sample of students from the fall of kindergarten through the spring of eighth grade (the 1998-1999 through 2006-2007 schools years).

Jennifer Van Hook, a Professor of Sociology and Demography at Pennsylvania State University and lead author of the study said "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."

Van Hook along with her co-author Claire E. Altman, a sociology and demography doctoral student at Pennsylvania State University, studied the sub-sample of 19,450 children who attended school in the same county in both fifth and eighth grades (the 2003-2004 and the 2006-2007 school years).

These researchers predicted that 59.2 percent of fifth graders and 86.3 percent of eighth graders in their study attended schools that sold junk food.

The researchers also observed that there was a significant increase in the percentage of students who attended schools that sold junk food between fifth and eighth grades, but number of obese students was not commensurate with the figures.

The study also suggests that even after increased availability of junk food, the percentage of obese students decreased from fifth grade to eighth grade, from 39.1 percent to 35.4 percent that is contrary to the supposed link up between junk food and obesity.

"There has been a great deal of focus in the media on how schools make a lot of money from the sale of junk food to students, and on how schools have the ability to help reduce childhood obesity," Van Hook was quoted as saying.

"In that light, we expected to find a definitive connection between the sale of junk food in middle schools and weight gain among children between fifth and eighth grades. But, our study suggests that-when it comes to weight issues-we need to be looking far beyond schools and, more specifically, junk food sales in schools, to make a difference." Van Hook said.

PVan Hook opined that policies that aim to reduce childhood obesity and prevent unhealthy weight gain should be more focused upon the home and family environments and surroundings outside of school.

January issue of Sociology of Education has published this finding.

--With inputs from ANI