Study finds students with heavy fast-food diets have test scores about 20% lower than those who don't east fast food

Eating fast food may cause lower test scores in school, says a recent study of U.S. school children.

The study, published online in the journal Clinical Pediatrics, found that "The more frequently children reported eating fast food in fifth grade, the lower their growth in reading, math and science test scores by the time they reached eighth grade," says an Ohio State University news release.

Specifically, the study found that children who ate fast food four to six times per week, or every day, had test-score gains in all three achievement areas that were about 20 percent less than those of children who did not eat any fast food in the week before the survey.

“There’s a lot of evidence that fast-food consumption is linked to childhood obesity, but the problems don’t end there,” said Kelly Purtell, lead author of the study and assistant professor of human sciences at Ohio State. “Relying too much on fast food could hurt how well children do in the classroom.”

The study included 11,740 students who were tested in reading/literacy, mathematics and science in both fifth and eighth grades. They were also given a food consumption questionnaire in fifth grade.

The researchers tried to accounted for many other reasons that might have influenced the results, including how much children exercised, how much television they watched, what other foods they ate, their family’s socioeconomic status, and characteristics of their neighborhood and school, according to the release.

While this study establishes a correlation between fast-food consumption and lower grades, it does not establish the cause of lower grades. However, Purtell said she and the other authors are "confident fast food explains some of the difference in achievement gains over time."

Other studies have suggested that it may be related to a lack of nutrients found in fast food, such as iron, and another study suggests that diets high in fat and sugar, found in most fast food, hurt immediate memory and learning processes, the news release says.

“We’re not saying that parents should never feed their children fast food, but these results suggest fast-food consumption should be limited as much as possible,” Purtell said.

Chain restaurants, theaters, amusement parks and grocery delis must post calorie counts in a year, to fight obesity

McDonald's already posts calorie content on its menus

In an effort to combat the country's obesity epidemic, the Food and Drug Administration issued final regulations Tuesday that will require chains with 20 or more restaurants, movie theaters and pizza parlors to post calorie counts on menus.

"The rules will have broad implications for public health," Sabrina Tavernise and Stephanie Strom report for The New York Times. "As much as a third of the calories that Americans consume come from outside the home, and many health experts believe that increasingly large portion sizes and unhealthy ingredients have been significant contributors to obesity in the United States."

“This is one of the most important public health nutrition policies ever to be passed nationally,” Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, told the authors. “Right now, you are totally guessing at what you are getting. This rule will change that.”

The numbers "could be a pretty big wake-up call," writes Jason Millman of The Washington Post. "The FDA rules are more comprehensive than expected, given the strong industry pushback since the menu labeling provision was included in the 2010 health-care law." The FDA proposed a rule in 2011, but heavy lobbying has delayed its finalization.

"Do people eat healthier when they can see calorie counts?" Milliman asks. "The evidence so far seems mixed. The impact seems to be greater when the calorie count is much higher than what consumers expect. What does seem clear from past studies is that people really are terrible judges of how many calories they consume when they dine out [and] are especially bad judges of the calorie content of the least healthy foods commonly found of restaurant menus."

The rules also cover food in vending machines, amusement parks, alcohol if it is on the menu or a menu board, and some prepared foods in supermarkets. Chain restaurants are defined as food establishments with 20 or more outlets.

The policy will take effect a year from now, "and seems likely to face legal and political challenges from some parts of the food industry, including grocery and convenience stores that sell prepared foods for takeout," the Times reports.

The National Grocers Association told the paper, “Grocery stores are not chain restaurants, which is why Congress did not initially include them in the law. We are disappointed that the FDA's final rules will capture grocery stores, and impose such a large and costly regulatory burden on our members.”

Daren Bakst, a research fellow in agricultural policy at the conservative Heritage Foundation, told the authors that the FDA interpreted the law too broadly. “If Congress wanted to cover any establishment that sells prepared foods, they would have said that,” he said. “No reasonable person is about to confuse a grocery store, convenience store or movie theater with a restaurant.” But retiring Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, who helped create the labeling requirement, said the rule “closely mirrors congressional intent.”

The FDA offered some concessions to grocers, convenience stores, pizza chains and vending-machine owners. For example, pizzerias can define their serving sizes and list calories by the slice, and vending machine owners have been given an extra year to comply.

As school-lunch debate puts attention on rejected meals, we might consider a bigger problem: food wasted at home

The new nutrition rules for school meals have led some students to throw away food they're served. Schools across the country are estimated to waste $1.2 billion worth of food every year, based on extrapolations from a study the National Institutes of Health conducted in Boston schools. That's a lot of wasted food and money, but students and their families waste even more food at home, George Jones writes for WFIE-TV in Evansville.

According to the U.S. Department of Education approximately 49.8 million pre-K through 12th-grade students will attend public schools this year. Each student is estimated to waste about $33 worth of federally funded lunches per year. "The average person in the general population wastes almost that much in total meals during one month," Jones reports.

Americans threw away $161 billion worth of food in 2010—nearly one-third of the available food supply, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That means the average person discards $372 worth of food each year, or four times as much as students.

"Sometimes people say it's the family and parents making choices, but it's the larger system we're in that making this problem," aid Pamela Koch, director of the Laurie M. Tisch Center for Food, Education and Policy at Columbia University. "They're working so many hours they think they don't have time to shop and cook healthy. And the most inexpensive foods are the ones that are not the most healthy for them."

Rising obesity rates and fast food consumption show that adults aren't eating well-balanced meals, much less school-aged individuals. The School Nutrition Association supports the rules requiring reduced-fat and fat-free milk and more fruits and vegetables, but "feels serving only whole grain breads and requiring children to take food they don't otherwise each is burdensome for schools," Jones reports.

"You're never going to be able to promote healthy diets for kids if they don't get healthy options across the board," SNA spokeswoman Diane Pratt-Heavner said. "It's the students who are unfamiliar with those healthier choices who are not responding well."

Students part of the Montgomery, Ala., group called E.A.T. (Education, Act Transform) were much more receptive to trying new foods—such as radishes—when they went through the process of planting and harvesting them. "They come here, and now they have an understanding," E.A.T. South Executive Director Denise Blake Green said. "They've seen the cycle—planting, harvesting, cooking, composting. When they leave here, food looks different to them." (Read more)

KET series to explore how chemistry, technology, fast food, "supersizing," marketing, and lobbying have made us fat

KET will air a three-part series, "Men Who Made Us Fat," in which Jacques Peretti blames American obesity on high-fructose corn syrup, fast food, "supersizing," marketing, and lobbying.

In the first episode Jacques Peretti looks at how decisions made in America 40 years ago influence how we eat today. He looks closely at high-fructose corn syrup, which interferes with leptin, the hormone that controls appetite. He also explores the role of fast-food chains in making a society fatter. It will air Monday, Sept. 8 at 10 p.m. EDT.

The second episode explores supersizing's role in how the U.S., once a nation of moderate eaters, started to want more. It will also examine how advertising directed at children has contributed to child obesity. It will air on KET2 Tuesday, Sept. 9 at 8 p.m. and on KET Sept. 11 at 4 a.m. and Sept. 15 at 10 p.m. EDT.

The third episode targets how marketing influences food buying, as well as government initiatives and health campaigns and how food manufacturers and related interests have lobbied hard against these efforts. It will air on KET Thursday, Sept. 18 at 4 a.m. and Monday, Sept. 22 at 10 p.m. EDT.