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Junk food DOESN'T make kids fat, their families do, says new study

There may be vending machines and junk foods in schools across the country - but this is not the reason children are gaining weight, scientists claim.

A recent study asserts that the percentage of overweight 13-year-olds in schools where junk food is present is statistically insignificant as compared to those schools that didn’t have junk food.

'Schools only represent a small portion of children's food environment," said Jennifer Van Hook, the sociology professor who led the study.

Childhood obesity has tripled across the U.S. over the past 30 years, and the Centers for Disease Control says that more than a third of all children and adolescents were obese in 2008.

Focusing on soft drinks, candy bars, and chips- all of which are formally called 'competitive foods', the study asserts that the presence of such foods in schools is not the sole cause for childhood obesity.

The debate over the presence of junk food in schools has become political in recent years, with many parent associations and politicians have put various measures into place in an effort to curb student snacking.

The study, which is published in the journal Sociology of Education, argues that children's eating habits are firmly established by the time they reach middle school, and therefore the presence or absence of vending machines will not sway them from their ways.

'Kids are actually very busy at school... There really isn't a lot of opportunity for children to eat while they're in school, or at least eat endlessly, compared to when they're at home.

'As a result, whether or not junk food is available to them at school may not have much bearing on how much junk food they eat,' Ms Van Hook said.

Read more about this at the Mail Online website.