ot: Fast food + nearby schools = fat kids

December 25, 2008

*Proximity of Fast-Food Restaurants to Schools and Adolescent Obesity*

Brennan and Carpenter

AJPH published December 23, 2008, 10.2105/AJPH.2008.137638

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*Fast food + nearby schools = fat kids*

2008-12-24 9:09:59 -0400 (Reuters Health)

By Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Youth who study just a short walk from a fast-food

outlet eat fewer fruit and vegetables, drink more soda and are more

likely to be obese than students at other schools, according to research

published on Tuesday.

The study, which involved more than 500,000 adolescents at middle

schools and high schools in California, lends new fuel to a growing

backlash against the fast-food industry as studies suggest they

contribute to the rising obesity epidemic in the United States.

" 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 of Azusa Pacific University in

California, whose study appears in the American Journal of Public Health...

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