Health and Science

Fast food consumption is out of control - and it could be blunting children's brains

Fast food consumption isn't
merely connected to increases in
pant size—it's tied to
significant decreases in test scores
among school children, according
to a new national study.
I
Researchers at Ohio State
University used data from a
nationally representative sample
of some 11,700 children to
measure how fast food might be
affecting their performance in
class. The study measured how
much fast food the children were
eating at age 10, and then
compared the consumption levels
to test results in reading, math,
and science three years later.
What they found is that even
small increases in the frequency
with which the students ate fast
food were associated with poorer
academic test results. Habitual
fast food eaters—those who ate
fast food daily—saw "test score
gains that were up to about 20
percent lower than those who
didn’t eat any fast food."
The connection held true even
after the researchers took into
account more than a dozen other
factors about the children's habits
and backgrounds that might have
contributed to the association
between fast food consumption
and poorer academic performance,
including fitness, broader eating
habits, socioeconomic status, and
characteristics of both their
neighborhood and school.
"Our results show clear and
consistent associations between
children’s fast food consumption
in 5th grade and academic growth
between 5th and 8th grade," the
researchers wrote. "These results
provide initial evidence that fast
food consumption is associated
with deleterious academic
outcomes among children."
More than half of the students
the researchers observed ate fast
food between one and three times
a week, and nearly three quarters
of them ate fast food at least once
a week.
“Fast-food consumption was quite
high in these students,” Kelly
Purtell, the study's lead
author, said in a statement .
While the study observed
children's eating habits in 2004,
and therefore could point to fast
food consumption levels that are
no longer representative of
current trends, there's reason to
believe little has changed. Nearly
a third of American kids between
the ages of 2 and 11 — and nearly
half of those aged 12 to 19 — eat
or drink something from a fast
food restaurant each day,
according to a study from 2008.
And fast food still accounts for
roughly 13 percent of total calories
eaten by children and teenagers
aged 2 to 18 in the United States.
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Purtell is careful to point out that
while there's a strong
suggestion that feeding children
fast food negatively affects their
academic performance, the study
falls short of establishing a
definitive casual connection. While
her team can't prove the diet
quirk caused lower test scores
gains, the group insists that fast
food consumption helps explain at
least part of the performance gap
between the students.
Why exactly fast food could be
blunting school children's brains
is unclear. A study conducted last
year showed that nutrients like
iron, which can be lacking in fast
food, are essential for the
development of a child's brain.
Diets high in fat and cholesterol
have also been linked to poorer
memory.