Poor American Children Face Risk of Obesity Higher than their Affluent Counterparts

Poor American Children Face Risk of Obesity Higher than their Affluent CounterpartsSubmitted by Neeraj Shahane on Thu, 01/16/2014 - 12:12 

It has been revealed by a new study that obesity rates have dropped among children from rich families, but children from lower socio economic sections are still facing the risk of suffering obesity.
This conclusion was drawn after conducting the study on children aged between 12 and 17 years. The findings were based on National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys and the National Survey of Children's Health.
It was revealed that average energy intake declined by 337 calories among children between 1991 and 2010. But these children belonged to college-educated parents. There was an average decline of only 166 calories in children with high school-educated parents.

There are several factors that lead to obesity among children of lower socio-economic strata. "Not only are fresh vegetables and fruits costlier than fast food, healthy alternatives are sometimes hard to find in poor neighborhoods", says the paper.
According to experts, there are 30 million people in the US who dwell in low-income areas that are at a very good distance from a supermarket. As a result, the food options they get are from fast food restaurants. And it is a known fact that junk food is high in fat, sugar and salt, which is a major cause of obesity.
Also, 20% of children in less educated family, poor families do not exercise even for 20 minutes a day compared to only 10% kids with college educated parents, said co-author Kaisa Snellman, Assistant Professor at INSEAD business school in France.