Kids with access to junk food at school were no heavier than those without

From Why School Junk Food Isn't Making Kids Fat by Benjamin Radford.

The study followed nearly 20,000 students from kindergarten through the eighth grade in 1,000 public and private schools. The researchers examined the children's weight and found that in the eighth grade, 35.5 percent of kids in schools with junk food were overweight while 34.8 percent of those in schools without it were overweight -- a statistically insignificant increase.

In other words, kids with access to junk food at school were no heavier than those without.

It's not that middle schoolers aren't eating junk food; indeed they are, just like most Americans. It's that most of the junk food they're eating is not coming through the schools. "Schools only represent a small portion of children’s food environment," said Jennifer Van Hook, a Professor of Sociology and Demography at Pennsylvania State University and lead author of the study.

This is interesting to me for a couple of reasons. First, it takes an established common assumption (schools with junk food will have heavier children) which is logical and then tests the assumption by collecting empirical data. The data says that the easy assumption is not correct - access to junk food at school has no meaningful impact on obesity.

Second, the finding reinforces the emerging but always understated recognition of the importance of the home and family culture. School can have an impact, positive and negative, oon a child, but usually, the greatest impact on the child is what they encounter at home, whether we are talking about manners, reading habits, or food consumption.

As long as we are mentally lazy and always look to the school to solve every problem that comes down the pike, we will avoid addressing the real root issues which are usually in the home.