Yahoo News has a disturbing, but seemingly logical, mathematic formula for students: Fast food + nearby schools = fat kids.
According to new research, kids who go to school within walking distance of fast food restaurants are more likely to be obese than students at other schools. The study was expansive, to say the least. It involved 500,000 adolescents at middle schools and high schools in California.
“We’ve basically discovered that kids who are going to a school that is near a fast-food restaurant have a higher chance of being overweight and obese than kids who are at a school that is not near a fast food restaurant,” said Brennan Davis of Azusa Pacific University in California. The study appears in the American Journal of Public Health.
The researchers said it’s not clear whether their findings apply to the rest of the country. They recommend further studies.
This isn’t new though. When I was in high school (in the ’80s!), we had fast food that was less than a five minute drive down the road. We occasionally enjoyed a Roy Rogers build-it-yourself burger. Most of my friends had no issues with obesity. It’s more about modern immobile culture than anything else.
These findings don’t surprise me at all! With approximately 52 million Americans at risk for diabetes, and fast food playing a major role in those numbers, we’re on a crash-course for disaster. People, especially the younger generation, need to learn healthier eating habits so we can avoid the recent increases in diabetes and other weight-related diseases in America.