A recent study out of PLoS One aimed to quantify the percentage of calories coming from various sources in kids’ diets.
And while no doubt dietary recall sucks, the authors looked at calories from,
“grocery stores, fast food restaurants, full-service restaurants, school cafeterias, and “other”. The “other” category included foods or beverages from someone else or as a gift, child-care centers, sports/recreational facilities, and vending machines“
The results are awful.
According to the paper, 35%, or just over every third calorie consumed by an average American kid between the ages of 4-19, comes from foods not purchased in a grocery store.
And given what’s being sold (and purchased) in grocery stores these days I think it’s safe to say that as far as the quality of kids’ calories go these days, the kids are most assuredly not all right.
Dr. Freedhoff is the founder and Medical Director of the Bariatric Medical Institute, dedicated to the (nonsurgical) treatment of overweight and obesity since 2004, and his personal website Weighty Matters, is ranked among the world’s top health blogs.
