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It’s a statistic that we see all over—lower income families have higher rates of obesity. And because both lower-income families and overweight and obese people eat a lot of fast food, we assume those two are connected—right?
It’s an easy thing to assume, but now it seems that it may be a bit overblown.
The CDC released a new report which now states that fast food may not be as bad as we make it out to be, at least not in this respect.
We assume that those in poverty assume more fast food, which makes their socioeconomic group more obese. But due to this report, children and adolescents between the ages of 2 and 19 across all economic groups consumed about the same amount of fast food.
This number didn’t really vary by weight status, either. Those not classified as overweight and obese consumed just as many calories from fast food.
However, there were some trends.
Adolescents between the ages of 12 and 19 ate twice as many average daily calories from fast food than younger children did. Overall, Asian children consumed the least amount of fast food calories daily.
This report hopes to dispel the idea that fast food is the only problem when it comes to obesity. For example, when a fast food ban was passed in South Los Angeles, obesity rates only rose.
Of course, this doesn’t mean you can go out and load up on McDonald’s. But fast food may not be the answer. Some are now pointing to the cheapness and accessibility of sugary foods as the fault.
Until we find out more, just remember: fast food still definitely isn’t good for you.
