What kids eat at home not at school is making them overweight, says new study

One-third of children are too fat, but a new study says it probably has nothing to do with junk food in the schools, according to the NY Daily News article. But how can excess candy and soda gobblers not gain weight when taken as a population?

Apparently the scientists found that the percentage of children who had access to candy, soda and chips at school jumped dramatically between fifth and eighth grades. The only issue with the statistic is that, according to the study, didn’t translate into childhood obesity or overweight. The study revealed that the percentage of students in the survey who were overweight or obese declined between fifth and eighth grades.

You can check out the study, led by Jennifer Van Hook, a Penn State sociology professor. Do the results surprise you? It surprised the researchers. Just how does the life at school influence kids?

When most mainstream media tout studies showing the opposite results, Van Hook spent two extra years crunching the numbers to make sure she wasn’t missing some connection between school food and childhood obesity. The conclusion points to what's making kids obese is what they eat when they're not in the classroom. At home they may be eating fattening foods or too much sugar.

Researcher, Van Hook noted that selling junk food in school doesn’t mean middle-schoolers are usually eating excess junk food. One of the factors is time spent eating lunch. Middle-school students typically get only a half-hour to eat lunch. Most teachers also get a half hour. Do the teachers eat the junk food?

The vending machines in schools require a certain amount of money that most students aren't given to spend on junk food each day. The kids perhaps just don't have the money to buy junk food every day from vending machines at school.

At home eating is another matter. Kids have the rest of the day to snack and eat meals at home. Perhaps that's where they are getting that excess food from, their own family refrigerators or pantries.

In New York City, childhood obesity is on the downswing, following cutbacks in fattening food. You could check out statistics at the health department. The bottom line is that junk food is full of starchy fillers, sweets, and usually wheat products that fatten up kids when excess amounts are eaten and kids are sitting in front of a TV, computer, homework desk, the kitchen or dining room table, or other sedentary habits.

How many kids play long enough after school compared to eating snacks and meals and doing homework or watching TV and playing computer games? And will studies like these  be thought of as just one more small study? After all, junk food in school vending machines is an issue with numerous parents and health professionals.

It's the parents who ingrain eating habits in kids very early in life. How many kids have access to healthy foods all day? Is childhood obesity declining in your area? The statistics still remain that one in five kids between kindergarten and the eighth grade is still obese, according to Health Dept. statistics in NYC.

The government's statistics on childhood obesity studies nation-wide reveal that two in three adults and one in three children are overweight. Since the 2012 figures are still similar to the figures of a decade ago, it's a sign that nationally childhood obesity is not going down, at least not quickly. It's not showing decreases, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Check out the rates of childhood obesity nation-wide yourself at the CDC sites. Also see,  CDC - NPAO - Obesity Facts - Adolescent and School Health.

Also see,  National Institutes of Health, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Disease and Conditions Index: What Are Overweight and Obesity? Bethesda, MD: National Institutes of Health; 2010. And see the site, Obesity rates may be leveling off, but doctors aren't celebrating.

According to the CDC, childhood obesity has more than tripled in the past 30 years. The percentage of children aged 6–11 years in the United States who were obese increased from 7% in 1980 to nearly 20% in 2008. Similarly, the percentage of adolescents aged 12–19 years who were obese increased from 5% to 18% over the same period. In 2008, more than one third of children and adolescents were overweight or obese.

Overweight is defined as having excess body weight for a particular height from fat, muscle, bone, water, or a combination of these factors. Obesity is defined as having excess body fat, according to the CDC. Overweight and obesity are the result of “caloric imbalance”—too few calories expended for the amount of calories consumed—and are affected by various genetic, behavioral, and environmental factors.

Studies on childhood obesity issues from the CDC site on childhood obesity