thesis statement about junk food

Essay on Junk Food

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In the contemporary world, one cannot escape the prevalence of junk food. From ubiquitous fast-food chains to convenience store shelves stocked with sugary snacks and processed treats, junk food has become an integral part of modern diets. It’s quick, tasty, and often affordable, making it a popular choice for people of all ages. However, it is imperative that we delve deeper into the subject of junk food, exploring its definition, its effects on our health, and the measures we can take to promote a healthier lifestyle.

Before we delve into the complex implications of junk food, it is essential to define what it actually is. Junk food refers to a category of food that is typically high in calories, sugar, unhealthy fats, and salt while being low in essential nutrients like vitamins, minerals, and fiber. These foods are often processed and manufactured with additives and preservatives to enhance their taste and shelf life. Common examples include fast food items like burgers, fries, and pizza, as well as sugary beverages, candies, and chips.

The Temptation of Junk Food

Junk food’s allure lies in its taste and convenience. The combination of fats, sugars, and salt in these foods can trigger a pleasurable response in the brain, similar to what occurs with addictive substances. This pleasure reinforces the desire to consume these foods repeatedly. Additionally, the fast-paced nature of modern life has led to an increased reliance on convenience foods, many of which fall into the category of junk food.

The Health Consequences of Junk Food

While junk food may offer immediate satisfaction for our taste buds and fill our stomachs, it also carries severe health consequences that extend beyond the momentary pleasure of consumption.

• Weight Gain and Obesity: Junk food is often calorie-dense, and excessive consumption can lead to weight gain and obesity. Obesity is associated with numerous health problems, including diabetes, heart disease, and certain types of cancer.
• Nutrient Deficiency: Junk food is notoriously low in essential nutrients like vitamins and minerals. Overreliance on these foods can lead to nutrient deficiencies, weakening the immune system and impairing overall health.
• Blood Sugar Imbalance: Sugary junk foods can cause rapid spikes and crashes in blood sugar levels, leading to increased hunger, irritability, and cravings for more unhealthy snacks.
• Heart Health: The high levels of unhealthy fats and salt in junk food can raise blood pressure and increase the risk of heart disease.
• Dental Problems: Sugary snacks and beverages are a leading cause of dental cavities and gum disease.
• Mental Health: There is evidence linking the consumption of junk food to poor mental health outcomes, including depression and anxiety.
• Addictive Behavior: The combination of sugars, fats, and salt in junk food can trigger addictive behavior, making it difficult for individuals to resist and moderate their consumption.

The Impact on Children

Children are particularly vulnerable to the allure of junk food. Advertisements targeting them are omnipresent, and the easy availability of sugary and processed snacks only adds to the problem. Poor eating habits developed during childhood can have lasting consequences on health. Childhood obesity, for example, can lead to a lifetime of health issues.

The Need for Education and Awareness

In the battle against junk food and its detrimental effects on health, education and awareness play a vital role. It is crucial to inform students and the general public about the risks associated with excessive consumption of junk food. This education should encompass the nutritional value of foods, the importance of a balanced diet, and the long-term consequences of unhealthy eating habits.

Schools and educational institutions have a significant role to play in this regard. They should incorporate nutrition education into their curricula, teaching students about making informed food choices and understanding food labels. Encouraging healthy eating habits at a young age can have a profound impact on students’ future well-being.

Promoting Healthier Alternatives

While it’s important to acknowledge the challenges posed by junk food, it’s equally essential to explore solutions and promote healthier alternatives. Here are some strategies to encourage better eating habits:

• Access to Nutritious Food: Efforts should be made to ensure that nutritious food options are readily available and affordable. This includes providing healthier meal choices in schools and workplaces and promoting the consumption of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins.
• Nutrition Labeling: Clear and easy-to-understand nutrition labels on packaged foods can empower consumers to make informed choices. Understanding serving sizes, calorie content, and nutrient values can guide individuals toward healthier options.
• Cooking Skills: Teaching students and adults how to prepare balanced meals from fresh ingredients can instill a lifelong appreciation for home-cooked food. Cooking classes and workshops can be valuable in this regard.
• Reducing Marketing to Children: Regulations should be in place to limit the marketing of junk food to children. This includes restrictions on advertising in schools, on children’s programming, and through digital media channels.
• Role of Parents and Caregivers: Parents and caregivers play a pivotal role in shaping children’s eating habits. Setting a positive example through their own food choices and providing a variety of nutritious foods at home can establish a strong foundation for healthy eating.
• Physical Activity: Encouraging regular physical activity is essential for maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Schools and communities should provide opportunities for physical exercise and play.
• Government Policies: Governments can implement policies such as sugar taxes, restrictions on unhealthy food advertising, and regulations on school lunch programs to promote healthier eating habits.

In conclusion, junk food is a prevalent and tempting part of modern diets, but it comes with significant health consequences. It is essential to educate students and the general public about the risks associated with excessive junk food consumption and promote healthier alternatives. By emphasizing nutrition education, access to nutritious food, cooking skills, and responsible marketing practices, we can work towards a healthier future where individuals make informed food choices, leading to improved overall well-being and a reduced burden of diet-related diseases. It is a collective effort that involves individuals, families, communities, educational institutions, and policymakers. Together, we can navigate the path to a healthier future and help students make choices that support their long-term health and vitality.

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The Impacts of Junk Food on Health

Energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods, otherwise known as junk foods, have never been more accessible and available. Young people are bombarded with unhealthy junk-food choices daily, and this can lead to life-long dietary habits that are difficult to undo. In this article, we explore the scientific evidence behind both the short-term and long-term impacts of junk food consumption on our health.

Introduction

The world is currently facing an obesity epidemic, which puts people at risk for chronic diseases like heart disease and diabetes. Junk food can contribute to obesity and yet it is becoming a part of our everyday lives because of our fast-paced lifestyles. Life can be jam-packed when you are juggling school, sport, and hanging with friends and family! Junk food companies make food convenient, tasty, and affordable, so it has largely replaced preparing and eating healthy homemade meals. Junk foods include foods like burgers, fried chicken, and pizza from fast-food restaurants, as well as packaged foods like chips, biscuits, and ice-cream, sugar-sweetened beverages like soda, fatty meats like bacon, sugary cereals, and frozen ready meals like lasagne. These are typically highly processed foods , meaning several steps were involved in making the food, with a focus on making them tasty and thus easy to overeat. Unfortunately, junk foods provide lots of calories and energy, but little of the vital nutrients our bodies need to grow and be healthy, like proteins, vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Australian teenagers aged 14–18 years get more than 40% of their daily energy from these types of foods, which is concerning [ 1 ]. Junk foods are also known as discretionary foods , which means they are “not needed to meet nutrient requirements and do not belong to the five food groups” [ 2 ]. According to the dietary guidelines of Australian and many other countries, these five food groups are grains and cereals, vegetables and legumes, fruits, dairy and dairy alternatives, and meat and meat alternatives.

Young people are often the targets of sneaky advertising tactics by junk food companies, which show our heroes and icons promoting junk foods. In Australia, cricket, one of our favorite sports, is sponsored by a big fast-food brand. Elite athletes like cricket players are not fuelling their bodies with fried chicken, burgers, and fries! A study showed that adolescents aged 12–17 years view over 14.4 million food advertisements in a single year on popular websites, with cakes, cookies, and ice cream being the most frequently advertised products [ 3 ]. Another study examining YouTube videos popular amongst children reported that 38% of all ads involved a food or beverage and 56% of those food ads were for junk foods [ 4 ].

What Happens to Our Bodies Shortly After We Eat Junk Foods?

Food is made up of three major nutrients: carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. There are also vitamins and minerals in food that support good health, growth, and development. Getting the proper nutrition is very important during our teenage years. However, when we eat junk foods, we are consuming high amounts of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, which are quickly absorbed by the body.

Let us take the example of eating a hamburger. A burger typically contains carbohydrates from the bun, proteins and fats from the beef patty, and fats from the cheese and sauce. On average, a burger from a fast-food chain contains 36–40% of your daily energy needs and this does not account for any chips or drinks consumed with it ( Figure 1 ). This is a large amount of food for the body to digest—not good if you are about to hit the cricket pitch!

• Figure 1 - The nutritional composition of a popular burger from a famous fast-food restaurant, detailing the average quantity per serving and per 100 g.
• The carbohydrates of a burger are mainly from the bun, while the protein comes from the beef patty. Large amounts of fat come from the cheese and sauce. Based on the Australian dietary guidelines, just one burger can be 36% of the recommended daily energy intake for teenage boys aged 12–15 years and 40% of the recommendations for teenage girls 12–15 years.

A few hours to a few days after eating rich, heavy foods such as a burger, unpleasant symptoms like tiredness, poor sleep, and even hunger can result ( Figure 2 ). Rather than providing an energy boost, junk foods can lead to a lack of energy. For a short time, sugar (a type of carbohydrate) makes people feel energized, happy, and upbeat as it is used by the body for energy. However, refined sugar , which is the type of sugar commonly found in junk foods, leads to a quick drop in blood sugar levels because it is digested quickly by the body. This can lead tiredness and cravings [ 5 ].

• Figure 2 - The short- and long-term impacts of junk food consumption.
• In the short-term, junk foods can make you feel tired, bloated, and unable to concentrate. Long-term, junk foods can lead to tooth decay and poor bowel habits. Junk foods can also lead to obesity and associated diseases such as heart disease. When junk foods are regularly consumed over long periods of time, the damages and complications to health are increasingly costly.

Fiber is a good carbohydrate commonly found in vegetables, fruits, barley, legumes, nuts, and seeds—foods from the five food groups. Fiber not only keeps the digestive system healthy, but also slows the stomach’s emptying process, keeping us feeling full for longer. Junk foods tend to lack fiber, so when we eat them, we notice decreasing energy and increasing hunger sooner.

Foods such as walnuts, berries, tuna, and green veggies can boost concentration levels. This is particularly important for young minds who are doing lots of schoolwork. These foods are what most elite athletes are eating! On the other hand, eating junk foods can lead to poor concentration. Eating junk foods can lead to swelling in the part of the brain that has a major role in memory. A study performed in humans showed that eating an unhealthy breakfast high in fat and sugar for 4 days in a row caused disruptions to the learning and memory parts of the brain [ 6 ].

Long-Term Impacts of Junk Foods

If we eat mostly junk foods over many weeks, months, or years, there can be several long-term impacts on health ( Figure 2 ). For example, high saturated fat intake is strongly linked with high levels of bad cholesterol in the blood, which can be a sign of heart disease. Respected research studies found that young people who eat only small amounts of saturated fat have lower total cholesterol levels [ 7 ].

Frequent consumption of junk foods can also increase the risk of diseases such as hypertension and stroke. Hypertension is also known as high blood pressure and a stroke is damage to the brain from reduced blood supply, which prevents the brain from receiving the oxygen and nutrients it needs to survive. Hypertension and stroke can occur because of the high amounts of cholesterol and salt in junk foods.

Furthermore, junk foods can trigger the “happy hormone,” dopamine , to be released in the brain, making us feel good when we eat these foods. This can lead us to wanting more junk food to get that same happy feeling again [ 8 ]. Other long-term effects of eating too much junk food include tooth decay and constipation. Soft drinks, for instance, can cause tooth decay due to high amounts of sugar and acid that can wear down the protective tooth enamel. Junk foods are typically low in fiber too, which has negative consequences for gut health in the long term. Fiber forms the bulk of our poop and without it, it can be hard to poop!

Tips for Being Healthy

One way to figure out whether a food is a junk food is to think about how processed it is. When we think of foods in their whole and original forms, like a fresh tomato, a grain of rice, or milk squeezed from a cow, we can then start to imagine how many steps are involved to transform that whole food into something that is ready-to-eat, tasty, convenient, and has a long shelf life.

For teenagers 13–14 years old, the recommended daily energy intake is 8,200–9,900 kJ/day or 1,960 kcal-2,370 kcal/day for boys and 7,400–8,200 kJ/day or 1,770–1,960 kcal for girls, according to the Australian dietary guidelines. Of course, the more physically active you are, the higher your energy needs. Remember that junk foods are okay to eat occasionally, but they should not make up more than 10% of your daily energy intake. In a day, this may be a simple treat such as a small muffin or a few squares of chocolate. On a weekly basis, this might mean no more than two fast-food meals per week. The remaining 90% of food eaten should be from the five food groups.

In conclusion, we know that junk foods are tasty, affordable, and convenient. This makes it hard to limit the amount of junk food we eat. However, if junk foods become a staple of our diets, there can be negative impacts on our health. We should aim for high-fiber foods such as whole grains, vegetables, and fruits; meals that have moderate amounts of sugar and salt; and calcium-rich and iron-rich foods. Healthy foods help to build strong bodies and brains. Limiting junk food intake can happen on an individual level, based on our food choices, or through government policies and health-promotion strategies. We need governments to stop junk food companies from advertising to young people, and we need their help to replace junk food restaurants with more healthy options. Researchers can focus on education and health promotion around healthy food options and can work with young people to develop solutions. If we all work together, we can help young people across the world to make food choices that will improve their short and long-term health.

Obesity : ↑ A disorder where too much body fat increases the risk of health problems.

Processed Food : ↑ A raw agricultural food that has undergone processes to be washed, ground, cleaned and/or cooked further.

Discretionary Food : ↑ Foods and drinks not necessary to provide the nutrients the body needs but that may add variety to a person’s diet (according to the Australian dietary guidelines).

Refined Sugar : ↑ Sugar that has been processed from raw sources such as sugar cane, sugar beets or corn.

Saturated Fat : ↑ A type of fat commonly eaten from animal sources such as beef, chicken and pork, which typically promotes the production of “bad” cholesterol in the body.

Dopamine : ↑ A hormone that is released when the brain is expecting a reward and is associated with activities that generate pleasure, such as eating or shopping.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

[1] ↑ Australian Bureau of Statistics. 2013. 4324.0.55.002 - Microdata: Australian Health Survey: Nutrition and Physical Activity, 2011-12 . Australian Bureau of Statistics. Available online at: http://bit.ly/2jkRRZO (accessed December 13, 2019).

[2] ↑ National Health and Medical Research Council. 2013. Australian Dietary Guidelines Summary . Canberra, ACT: National Health and Medical Research Council.

[3] ↑ Potvin Kent, M., and Pauzé, E. 2018. The frequency and healthfulness of food and beverages advertised on adolescents’ preferred web sites in Canada. J. Adolesc. Health. 63:102–7. doi: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2018.01.007

[4] ↑ Tan, L., Ng, S. H., Omar, A., and Karupaiah, T. 2018. What’s on YouTube? A case study on food and beverage advertising in videos targeted at children on social media. Child Obes. 14:280–90. doi: 10.1089/chi.2018.0037

[5] ↑ Gómez-Pinilla, F. 2008. Brain foods: the effects of nutrients on brain function. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 9, 568–78. doi: 10.1038/nrn2421

[6] ↑ Attuquayefio, T., Stevenson, R. J., Oaten, M. J., and Francis, H. M. 2017. A four-day western-style dietary intervention causes reductions in hippocampal-dependent learning and memory and interoceptive sensitivity. PLoS ONE . 12:e0172645. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0172645

[7] ↑ Te Morenga, L., and Montez, J. 2017. Health effects of saturated and trans-fatty acid intake in children and adolescents: systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS ONE. 12:e0186672. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0186672

[8] ↑ Reichelt, A. C. 2016. Adolescent maturational transitions in the prefrontal cortex and dopamine signaling as a risk factor for the development of obesity and high fat/high sugar diet induced cognitive deficits. Front. Behav. Neurosci. 10. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2016.00189

Essay on Junk Food

Students are often asked to write an essay on Junk Food in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Junk Food

The allure of junk food.

Junk food is popular for its taste, convenience, and affordability. It’s everywhere – in school cafeterias, at the cinema, and on our home tables.

The Downside of Junk Food

Healthy alternatives.

Instead of reaching for junk food, we should opt for healthier choices like fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. These foods are not only tasty but also good for our health.

While junk food might be tempting, we must remember the importance of a balanced diet for our well-being.

250 Words Essay on Junk Food

Introduction.

Junk food, a term popularized in the latter half of the 20th century, refers to food that is high in calories but low in nutritional value. It is a pervasive element in modern societies, often associated with convenience, taste, and immediate gratification.

The appeal of junk food is multifaceted. It is typically easy to prepare, inexpensive, and designed to satisfy our innate preference for fat, sugar, and salt. Moreover, it’s often marketed with persuasive advertising strategies, making it an omnipresent temptation.

Nutritional Downfall

Despite its allure, junk food’s low nutritional value poses serious health risks. Its high sugar content can lead to obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease. High sodium levels can contribute to hypertension, and a dearth of essential nutrients can trigger a range of deficiencies.

Societal Impact

The ubiquity of junk food has significant societal implications. Its consumption is linked to a rise in chronic diseases, escalating healthcare costs, and decreased productivity. Moreover, it’s often more accessible in low-income communities, contributing to health disparities.

While junk food offers convenience and immediate satisfaction, its long-term effects on individual health and society are detrimental. It is crucial to promote healthier alternatives, regulate advertising, and improve nutritional education to mitigate these impacts. The challenge is not just a personal one, but a collective one that requires concerted effort and policy intervention.

500 Words Essay on Junk Food

Junk food’s popularity stems primarily from its convenience and addictive taste. Fast-paced modern lifestyles often leave little time for cooking or preparing nutritious meals. Junk food, easily accessible and ready-to-eat, fills this gap. Additionally, the high sugar, salt, and fat content in these foods stimulate the brain’s pleasure centers, creating a sense of satisfaction that encourages repeated consumption.

Nutritional Deficiencies

Despite their high calorie content, junk foods lack essential nutrients like vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Regular consumption of such foods can lead to nutritional deficiencies. For instance, a diet rich in junk food but devoid of fruits and vegetables can result in Vitamin C and fiber deficiencies, leading to health issues like scurvy and constipation respectively.

Health Implications

The role of marketing, addressing the issue.

Addressing the junk food epidemic requires a multi-faceted approach. Education about the harmful effects of junk food and the benefits of a balanced diet is crucial. Schools and colleges should promote healthier food choices in their cafeterias. Governments can play a role by implementing policies such as taxing junk food, restricting their advertising, and mandating clear nutritional labeling. Individuals also have a responsibility to make conscious choices about their diet and lifestyle.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

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Home — Essay Samples — Nursing & Health — Junk Food — People Should Eat Less Junk Food

People Should Eat Less Junk Food

• Categories: Dieting Junk Food

About this sample

Words: 475 |

Published: Jan 31, 2024

Words: 475 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

Table of contents

Physical health, mental well-being, overall quality of life, counterargument and refutation.

• American Journal of Clinical Nutrition - https://academic.oup.com/ajcn
• Nutritional Neuroscience - https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/iunu20/current
• World Health Organization - https://www.who.int
• National Institute on Drug Abuse - https://www.drugabuse.gov

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Module: Academic Argument

Argumentative thesis statements.

Below are some of the key features of an argumentative thesis statement.

An argumentative thesis is . . .

An argumentative thesis must make a claim about which reasonable people can disagree. Statements of fact or areas of general agreement cannot be argumentative theses because few people disagree about them.

Junk food is bad for your health is not a debatable thesis. Most people would agree that junk food is bad for your health.

Because junk food is bad for your health, the size of sodas offered at fast-food restaurants should be regulated by the federal government is a debatable thesis.  Reasonable people could agree or disagree with the statement.

An argumentative thesis takes a position, asserting the writer’s stance. Questions, vague statements, or quotations from others are not argumentative theses because they do not assert the writer’s viewpoint.

Federal immigration law is a tough issue about which many people disagree is not an arguable thesis because it does not assert a position.

Federal immigration enforcement law needs to be overhauled because it puts undue constraints on state and local police is an argumentative thesis because it asserts a position that immigration enforcement law needs to be changed.

An argumentative thesis must make a claim that is logical and possible. Claims that are outrageous or impossible are not argumentative theses.

City council members stink and should be thrown in jail is not an argumentative thesis. City council members’ ineffectiveness is not a reason to send them to jail.

City council members should be term limited to prevent one group or party from maintaining control indefinitely is an arguable thesis because term limits are possible, and shared political control is a reasonable goal.

Evidence Based

An argumentative thesis must be able to be supported by evidence. Claims that presuppose value systems, morals, or religious beliefs cannot be supported with evidence and therefore are not argumentative theses.

Individuals convicted of murder will go to hell when they die is not an argumentative thesis because its support rests on religious beliefs or values rather than evidence.

Rehabilitation programs for individuals serving life sentences should be funded because these programs reduce violence within prisons is an argumentative thesis because evidence such as case studies and statistics can be used to support it.

An argumentative thesis must be focused and narrow. A focused, narrow claim is clearer, more able to be supported with evidence, and more persuasive than a broad, general claim.

The federal government should overhaul the U.S. tax code is not an effective argumentative thesis because it is too general (What part of the government? Which tax codes? What sections of those tax codes?) and would require an overwhelming amount of evidence to be fully supported.

The U.S. House of Representative should vote to repeal the federal estate tax because the revenue generated by that tax is negligible is an effective argumentative thesis because it identifies a specific actor and action and can be fully supported with evidence about the amount of revenue the estate tax generates.

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Writing Essays About Fast Food

Academic writing

Essay paper writing

It is not a secret that the fast food sphere has come a long way from the convenience product cafe in the outskirts of Southern California to the multi-billion-dollar industry today. Since multiple studies show that cardiovascular and obesity problems of Americans in most cases are linked with overconsumption of foods filled with fats, salts, and carbs, careful exploration of the fast food market is highly demanded today. This demand inevitably brings every student to write essays about fast food. While this is quite a mouthwatering topic to write about, we should consider all the details for crafting an A+ essay. This article can be your guide in writing essays on fast food step by step.

Facts about the fast food industry are inexorable and striking. Let’s consider some of them: 

• The highest death rates connected with junk food consumption and consequent weight-related complications have been reported in Nairobi, Kenya - that was nearly 2.8 million people each year.
• In more than 160,000 fast food locations in the US, more than 50 million Americans eat burgers daily.
• A third of children eat fast food on a daily basis.
• McDonald’s is more recognized than the Christian Cross.

We could continue with shocking facts and statistics even further, but what is crucial to understand that fortunately, the problem of eating too much junk meals is largely addressed by scholars from all around the world. As a result, multiple studies of recent years are available for you both on the Internet and in academic libraries. That might be exactly the reason why writing on this subject could be difficult, especially for students that are unfamiliar with professional essay writing. Why? Because it’s not that easy to gather all the overflow of the evidence and group it all into persuasive arguments, flowing through the pages of your academic assignment smoothly and in a scientifically correct way.

Whether you are writing a rationally constructed fast food argumentative essay or another type of paper requiring more opinion judgments, you should apply the same highly specific principles of academic writing. In addition to that, it’s also crucially important not to be too prejudiced about fast food. If you start your argument straight from the judgmental view of street meals as products that possess incontrovertible danger for human health, by doing this, you also start from the point of broken informational balance. Instead of taking the negative approach as an axiom, try to think like a scientist and explore any of fast food argumentative essay topics without the influence of your own point of view.

Nevertheless, fast food is a hot topic that might fuel some of the fiercest battles in your class, that’s why writing on this theme is especially interesting for a student of every faculty. So let’s get this show down the road and start our step by step guide of how to write an essay on what role does fast food play in our life and culture.

Fast food and obesity essay

The studies conducted at the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington clearly show that unhealthy eating habits are being the second biggest threat of early death worldwide, right next to the dangers of smoking. The risk factor here is a high body mass index, which signifies obesity and is a sign of increased cholesterol level. The high cholesterol level, high blood glucose level, along with high blood pressure, are all the consequences of obesity that is typically caused by regular consumption of fast food. Moreover, this problem also has an economic nature. This means that, when you are writing an unhealthy eating habits essay, it’s also useful to seek the roots of this issue in the economy field. By doing this, you will be able to propose a valid solution to the problem.

While we mentioned only one of the approaches above, when crafting your fast food and obesity essay, you could employ different techniques as far as your university professor considers it acceptable. Anyway, you need to start with the basics. First thing first, you have to find a proper topic. It is best if it will sound somewhat challenging and provocative because you have a chance to uncover the new approach and propose ideas that have never been addressed before by other students. Meanwhile, the general topic like a junk food and obesity essay could give you also more freedom in choosing the argument line, which you can shape after you perform extensive research on this theme. Some students come up with ideas for their titles after they do all the research and group their evidence by type and strength. While the other ones prefer to go with the flow, to apply their creativity and opinion right from the start by creating a compelling title in the first place, and then do all the most difficult parts. You can try both tactics and then choose whichever suits best for your pace, schedule, and style of writing.

Nevertheless, the research part is often being the key to crafting successful fast food is unhealthy essay. So what you do is begin to look for the evidence that supports the notion that any burger is a potential reason for one of five deaths in the world. Objectively speaking, eating one burger might not cause immediate and irreversible health problems. But the regular consumption of foods with low nutritional value, the high fat, calorie, and sodium content makes these meals potentially hazardous for health. As you can see now, whether writing an essay or a speech on fast food, it is crucial to employ an all-round approach to the exploration of this topic. This will help you sound rather professional than biased.

The good idea for your essay is to provide medical studies that prove the link between overconsumption of fast food and health as the first argument. You can find tons of information about this subject in scholarly articles on obesity and fast food from all around the world. For example, the Guardian research indicates that in 2011 alone, the number of people suffering from diabetes worldwide has increased nearly twice since 1980, and that was 153 million to 350 million people. This fact could be linked to junk foods available at any convenience store or shopping mall nearby, but this could be rather indirect evidence. Instead, it is much more relevant to look for specific studies on the topic that you are writing about.

Nevertheless, it is also worth noticing in a good persuasive essay on how fast food contributes to obesity about the hazards of obesity and the reason why we should talk about it more. According to recent studies, obesity rates have doubled in 2008 since 1980. The US, unfortunately, continues being an epicenter of this problem, where 2 of 3 Americans are clinically overweight. In addition to that, 500 million people were recorded in 2011 as obese with body mass indexes greater than 30, while 1.4 billion were clinically overweight with body mass indexes exceeding 25. A good opening phrase for effects of fast food essay could be based on the study that suggests that obesity kills more people than car crashes.

But if we return to specific studies about fast food and obesity relation, another research that you can highlight in your essay about junk food shows that fast food diminishes our basic instinct, which is the sensory-specific satiety. This instinct is responsible for feeling full after you eat your meal. You’ve probably noticed how soon you want to eat after visiting fast food restaurant. That’s the catch to mention in fast food essays. After experiments done on rats in e School of Medical Sciences at Australia’s University of New South Wales, it was proved that so-called junk food alters our brains’ motivational control and reward behavior. To put it simply, when someone stops eating traditional meals, they know when it’s enough. However, this trigger doesn’t work with fast food, which provokes overeating and results in health implications like mitochondrial dysfunction, weight gain, and tissue inflammation.

Finally, one of the studies shows that regular fast food consumption doubles the risk of insulin resistance being one of the reasons for the development of type 2 diabetes. They also point out that not only fast food affects obesity, including diabetes overweight, but also it increases cases of hospitalization with coronary diseases.

You could also mention in any of your future essays on junk food the marketing side of this problem. One of the reasons why people are overeating at fast food restaurants is the high number of them located in places where people usually work, live, and recreate. The Canadian Journal of Public Health researchers at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences in Ontario, Canada, published the results of their findings indicating that the density of fast food places increases the chances of eating too much junk food. Another research from the University of South Australia supported this information indicating in their European Journal of Epidemiology that in 2010, each 10% rise of the fast food locations resulted in 1.39 times more deaths from cardiovascular conditions. Similarly, the University of California, Berkeley, scholars found in 2009 that people living nearby fast food restaurants have a 5.2 percent greater risk of obesity.

In this regard, it is also valid to point out the reasons for eating too much fast food. Try to think about why people of different ages and backgrounds prefer eating at fast food diners rather than healthy food restaurants. Of course, one of the reasons for this is an attractive marketing image. First of all, eating something tasty is an essential part of how young people like to go out and socialize. In addition to that, specific chemicals and technology of production of junk food ingredients imply that they perform kind of a sensory attack to our receptors being enormously delicious, while also turning off the sensory satisfaction instinct and leaving us craving for more even when we are full. Make sure you don’t forget about this argument when writing an essay about what is really in fast food. Fast foods are also convenient for a variety of reasons for different people. Some of them don’t like cooking at home, so they go the easiest way and buy fast food. Also, people working in the office are also prone to eat at fast food restaurants. Such a meal is simply cheap, tasty, and convenient on the go.

Burgers and chips, chocolate bars and brightly colored candies, soda and ice-cream are also being an affordable treat for children from low-income families. It could appear as your central argument for a fast food and childhood obesity essay. Unfortunately, fast food is a highly desirable meal, especially for children. Various promotional offers and toy cartoon characters in the kit are another marketing trick that targets children to crave those burger menus. In many schools in the US, junk food is a part of the menu that any child can eat daily, which is also worth mentioning in a fast food in America essay. While in Mumbai, India, fast food is already totally prohibited for from selling in schools and next to their territories. We will talk more about this a couple sections below, so keep reading to know more about what you could write about the fast food industry with regard to the increasing worldwide childhood obesity rates of recent years.

Effects of fast food on health essay

In the section above, we have briefly touched upon the areas of research that could be relevant when writing the effects of fast food on health essay. The causation of regular fast food consumption is also strongly related to a wider variety of health issues. An essay on harmful effect of junk food is one of the most popular assignments to cover the topic of adverse effect of fast food on health. Even though the issue is rather serious, don’t overload it with negative assumptions and attempts to prove it in the most horrific way. Instead, keep things clear, reasonable, and rational. Try to dig into the roots and causes of the problem. Investigate the exact way of how fast food becomes hazardous for the health of children and adult people. You simply need to find that borderline that makes a tasty treat and turns it into a dangerous habit.

You may also alter the approach, creating something like eating at home vs eating out essay. Here, you have an opportunity to include all the pros and cons of healthier food, which one can easily cook at home. Moreover, this is also a good title for an argumentative essay because this type of academic assignment essentially needs to contain a counter-argument to your thesis statement, even if it’s quite common like a fast food kills argumentative essay. Further, you can examine things that stand in the way of cooking at home. For example, that could be the lack of knowledge of how to cook tasty and simple meals or the false assumption that home-cooked dinner is more expensive than eating out. People might also think that cooking at home takes a considerable amount of time.

Fast food and health problems have been widely discussed by academics from the leading universities around the world. Many famous dietologists also emphasize the incredible harm of junk food. While the most popular question to talk about is the threat of obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular problems when writing the fast food and physical health essay, you also might want to mention that regular fast food consumption has proved to cause real brain damage and might even lead to a mental meltdown. The thing is that our brains just don’t get enough nutrients and vitamins with fast food, that’s why our bodies keep asking for more when being hungry shortly after you eat that French fries.

If you are writing the effects of consuming too much fast food essay, the great approach to choose to fascinate your professor and class is to go deeper into the chemistry of its ingredients. By carefully examining what fast food is made of and how nutrients work, you can find answers to your thesis statement proposed questions in order to resolve your argument and prove your point. You may look for ready answers as there are a lot of researches that have been performed to let people know what hides inside junk food. Meanwhile, it could also be much more interesting to propose your own ideas about the researched topic. As we already mentioned above, you may compare home-cooked meals with fast food in relation to its price, affordability, easiness, and the after-effects on the human body; this info will be especially relevant for a processed food essay. You might also explain how processed food is made, how to read nutrition labels, what foods are safe to buy, and what you should avoid. Your fast food informative speech will only benefit from that on the way to your A+ grade. Luckily, it is relatively easy to monitor what you eat thanks to the nutrition labels that fast food places and pre-packed food makers are obliged to make. You may enlist some especially dangerous elements so that the readers of your fast food warning labels essay will be aware of their harm.

The easiest way to know what you are buying is to read nutrition labels. A quick guide on them might be useful for you, but for shaping a persuasive essay about junk food, this information is obviously not enough. Our advice is to look for evidence to support your ideas in academic sources while also performing your own junk food research in restaurants and convenience stores. Due to the fact that the variety of food labels give too much specific information, try to start from simple steps. For example, you want to watch for a color-coding. To buy something healthier, look for more green ones (low fat, sugar, salt), than amber (medium fat, sugar, salt), or red (high amount of fat, sugar, salt). You also want to mention which amount of those ingredients plus energy (kJ/kcal), saturated fat carbohydrate, sugars, protein, and salt, is mentioned on the pack. These facts are great to explore in the essay on junk food a silent killer.

If too many students write about the current hazards of fast food relating to our physical health, and you don’t want to repeat the same ideas over and over again in one more essay, there is an alternative way to go. By choosing a slightly different topic, you can reserve yourself the highest grade of them all for sure. You will stand out from the crowd and be noticed by your professor. The only problem is that you will have to perform much more profound research to deliver your ideas in an academically proper way. So by now, you might be wondering, what are those mysterious alternative topics?

Well, for example, you can go for the history of fast food essay and examine the root cause of the whole problem that has got so globally large and important nowadays. How the burger culture went all the way from small and convenient products at the gas stations and suburbs diners to the leading worldwide industry that develops so well in almost every country? By watching its development, you might also propose the same approach for tackling the obesity problem. For instance, if promotion and smart marketing campaigns you consider as key factors to the overall fast food business success, then most likely, it is also the potentially most successful way to target the same audience and to promote healthier food choices.

However, if you want to go even further in your creativity, you may choose such a controversial topic as the benefits of fast food essay. Here, you will need to think out of the box. What benefits could have something so widely regarded as hazardous? Well, we have a few tips on what you could propose in such an essay. First of all, as we mentioned before, all food manufacturers and restaurants have calorie counts and nutrition labels on their foods. So in any renowned fast-food restaurant, you will get the portion that doesn’t exceed the recommended value of fats, sugars, salts, sodium, calories, etc. The good advice is just to eat one burger and say no to the second one in case if you want more.

Another benefit of fast food is that you can also pick healthier options in restaurants like the oatmeal for breakfast and the summer salad with grilled chicken for lunch. They also have a wide variety of affordable offers. You can try the best of Chinese, Mexican, Italian, and Middle-East food just for a few dollars.

Argumentative essay about junk food in schools

While fast food topic is quite popular today, still, writing an academic research paper, you shouldn’t let your emotions getting away with you. Your personal opinion and emotional approach are good for another kind of essay, which we will be talking about in the following sections. Meanwhile, it’s time to discuss what is so special about writing an argumentative essay about junk food in schools, and what you should do to make it the most appealing for a professor.

First and foremost, you should remember to maintain a rational approach to your subject. It is extremely important to keep the informational balance of both your arguments and counter-arguments; otherwise, it’s quite simple to get blown away by the most popular notion that fast food is simply unhealthy and then continue writing your essay based on that argument as an axiom that doesn’t need proving. However, simply a negative view of this topic cannot be considered the ultimate truth. When you are writing an academic assignment, you are acting as a scientist that explores the nature of things and makes their own conclusions on the basis of all the data and knowledge. All the info stated above might sound difficult at first, but when you look at this technique more closely, you will notice that performing this kind of research along with gathering the documentation as a proof of your assumptions from the trusted academic sources actually sounds like a very interesting way to work on an argumentative essay on fast food consumption.

When outlining your argumentative essay, you should also remember to put forth the strongest argument right in the first body paragraph. As you move on through your topic, keep uncovering the details about the ideas that you want to discuss in your paper, such as should junk food be banned in schools essay. According to the academic rules that define what an argumentative essay is, it should necessarily contain a tension of the argument. What do we mean by this? You can simply put together the opposing views right after another and discuss what evidence overweight the argument, thus making a point that proves your thesis statement. For example, the opposing view on the subject due to the previously stated example topic could be the essay about why schools should serve fast food options.

As you can clearly see now, here, you can explore both benefits and hazards of fast food being sold in schools. It would be extremely relevant to support your opinion on one or another argument by discussing the real examples. What happened to the schools that have already banned fast foods? Do they have statistics about the health of pupils learning in those schools? Do they run the promotional campaigns of encouraging kids to maintain a healthy diet, and if yes, do they work? See, here you can find a whole large field of investigation that is engaging and relevant for every student.

While writing about fast food selling in schools, it would also be valid to explore the topic in order to write children and fast food essay because particularly the younger generation is targeted by global brands marketing campaigns of junk food. The famous TV presenter, blogger, and cook Jamie Oliver runs a whole social media campaign against that tendency, which is called #IAdEnough, which you might also want to mention in your paper. It’s important to mention, though, that Jamie Oliver doesn’t argue against fast food promotional campaigns in general; he only insists that they should not be targeted at children and teenagers since they are more vulnerable and prone to copying the behavior shown in the advertisement.

Having said that, your thesis statement of a good argumentative essay could also focus on the questions that you could explore in an essay on effects of fast food on our new generation. Picture the societal advantages and challenges of our times and how they affect the choice of food for the younger audience. Of course, the global development of pocket-size smart devices, the Internet, and social media affects modern culture greatly. The overflow of various unfiltered information going through all of these sources makes it even harder for modern kids to make conscious decisions about what they want and what they really need. 

When looking at all these social tendencies globally, you may shape the argument of essay writing on fast food towards finding the root cause for the problem of the overly high popularity of fast food in the market of the younger generation. You might also propose solutions to this problem. For example, why not making healthy food also cheap and quick to cook, as well as incredibly tasty and visually appealing? 

Research paper on fast food

While an argumentative essay on any topic requires putting together two opposing points of view and make your own reasonable conclusions as a result of that exploration and comparison, when you are writing a research paper on fast food, you want to apply a slightly different approach. The main point to remember here is that the research paper doesn’t concentrate on the single one point of an argument, nor does it consider only one polarity view to be ultimately outweighing another. When writing this kind of an academic assignment, you want to focus on analyzing the problem that you pose in your thesis statement from various points of view, considering different facts and evidence along the way. The aim of the research paper is rather rationalizing on a particular subject than trying to convince or to discern certain ideas.

The first thing that you need to do while working on a fast food and obesity research paper is to carefully gather all the possible references on your topic that you can find. We know it is the most comfortable to look for them online, but at the same time, try to do something that’ll make you stand out of the crowd. For example, go to your university or public library. You will be surprised how much useful information is presented in the sources you find there.

However, if you are still looking for some fast food research paper topics, it is not necessarily to look among research papers that you see all around on the Internet. In order to sound original, try to look for scientific articles on fast food, as well as some popular media resources that cover the topic of junk food consumption effects. Often, these articles contain a lot of useful information given in quite a short form. When you know all the thesis sentences and claims that it covers, you can note them and then develop these ideas and use the given data throughout your research paper.

After you have collected all the data that will support your train of thought, you need to organize your facts and quotes by certain criteria. You decide what criteria will be the most significant for you. Anyway, it should reveal the idea of your thesis statement. You could also make notes along the way that will appear useful when you will write the body paragraphs. After you’ve done all that, it’s time to plan and write down the fast food research paper outline. This could be a simple topic phrase outline or a more advanced annotated outline with whole topic sentences. Whether you should choose the first or the second one, it depends on your academic level and requirements of the teacher.

Research essay about fast food

Another kind of academic assignment that you might be asked to write is a research essay about fast food. You might be wondering how this is different from all the other kinds of academic papers. Well, the specific requirements really differ from one university, college, or school to another. To know exactly what rules and norms of formatting, what style and scientific approach you should abide by, ask your professor. And of course, don’t forget to visit lectures on a regular basis.

Moreover, a research essay is different from, for example, a persuasive essay on why fast food is bad in the way that you want to prove and explain your thesis statement. In the first case, you perform extensive research of various credible sources on your topic and then analyze it in a rational and logical kind of way. Of course, all these principles you also apply in your persuasive essay about fast food, but that is slightly different. In the last case, you apply more of the emotional and moral evidence. Persuasive essays are pushier; they are designed to convince your audience to agree with your point of view on the subject that you are talking about.

Persuasive essays that require less of a logical approach and designed to assess mostly your ability for critical thinking are also called something like the opinion essay about fast food. When writing this, don’t forget that you shouldn’t be blown away by your emotions. Your ideas also shouldn’t be left without the support of relevant references in case you have a more advanced academic level. Yes, this is all about your opinion, but it also suggests that you have carefully researched the given topic before writing about it and not just reflected on something you know little or nothing about. The same goes for the fast food discussion essay. Here, you want to discuss various, often controversial points of view on the given subject, not relying much on your personal opinion.

Fast food essay outline

In order to get the best grade, you might start your work on the essay, looking for the catchy essay titles for the topic of the popularity of fast food restaurants. However, this approach might not always be the best idea to employ for writing an academic assignment. First off, what the excellent student really wants is crafting a relevant, strong, and persuasive fast food thesis statement that will lead them all along the way of writing the paper. A perfectly posed question can do miracles with your assignment. It will be so easy to write down paragraph by paragraph if you know for sure how you are going to deploy your topic.

You might not want to spend some considerable amount of time on shaping the perfect thesis statement, but you got to trust us, it’s definitely worth the hassle. Don’t be afraid to alter it on the way, for example, as you do your research, you get to know more and more important data and evidence about the subject. When you feel that you’ve done all these things right, it’s time to move on to the next step. And that is writing the fast food essay outline. You may be wondering how the perfect outline actually looks like. If you type in the search engine of your browser when starting to work on your fast food argumentative essay sample, the sample essays that you find might contain some advanced and long outlines. It looks professional, maybe even too much. Your task is creating a short and concise outline that can be accepted by your professor.

However, even the outline doesn’t have as much influence on your eventual grade as the fast food essay introduction. This part is the first page or two that the professor will read, and of course, he or she will memorize it the most at the end of the day when going through dozens of similar essays like yours. It may also be the main reference point if you have to stand out in front of the class and defend your point discussed in your essay. By the way, one more tip for you: competitive and engaging fast food essay hook makes the perfect introduction. It might take some time to think about mainly because the topic of junk food is largely addressed.

To find a perfectly new and fresh attention grabber for essays on effects of fast food persuasive essay, we recommend you look up the popular social activists and bloggers forums, websites, and groups in social media. This might not be the most reliable source of information to state in a reference page, but you need it for other reasons. Namely, for finding the newest and the most accurate information to hook the audience of your fast food persuasive essay. For example, one of the recent blog posts of the healthy diet community claimed that obesity kills more people annually than dictators and political regimes in the times of World War II. Does it sound shocking and attention-grabbing? For sure! And that is exactly what you are looking for when thinking how to write a persuasive essay introduction on fast food linked to obesity. After you have found this perfectly challenging hook statement and shaped your thesis statement in the proper way, don’t rush to finish your introduction right away. Wait for a few hours and even days so you can go back to it with fresh ideas and maybe alter it to perfection.

What is no less important for a good essay grade apart from the introduction is also a conclusion for a fast food essay. The first thing that you need to remember is that rephrasing all the arguments from your essay is not simply rewriting it. Strive for pointing out all the major turning points while thinking of your thesis statement as a proven fact. Thus, your conclusion will sound strong and persuasive. The next thing that you definitely want to do is finish your essay with a persuasive clincher phrase that encourages the further exploration of your essay topic.

Fast food essay topics

Given that writing about fast food consumption and its long-term effects on human health became a common thing to do for students at most of the universities across the world, it is fair to say that most of these essays include almost the same information. The facts about the link between fast-food restaurants density and health issues of people living nearby, the consequences of overconsumption of trans fats, sodium, and salts in fast food - all these data and statistics are surely known by your professors since they might have read it thousand times before. So, what should you do to really stand out and to gain the best grade in your class? We have the right answer! What you need to think of in the first place is picking some fresh and new topics for fast food essay. Do you think that there is not much place for creativity? We will prove to you in this section that there are lots of areas in the fast-food exploration field that haven’t been largely discussed by the scholar audience.

As we already mentioned in the previous sections, a good way in which you could start your exploration is the essay about how fast food places use kids to market their brand. Indeed, this is a global problem that requires spreading the carefully researched data and academic knowledge. As a result, you might contribute to the healthier development of our younger generations. Just think about all those toys in the food kits and children menu options in the fast-food restaurants that you know. The imagery that they use are is highly appealing to the younger audience. Meanwhile, due to the tremendous amounts of information that appears online and in advertising (oftentimes hidden in social media context), the unfiltered advertising portions process through our brains without much resistance. We almost subconsciously assume, without even giving it a second thought or doubt that a highly sweetened carbonated beverage is associated with happiness while chilling with your friends and family. We associate burgers with socializing and having a good time. Thus, the advertising is targeted directly at young and unprotected by media literacy and awareness minds.

The next paper you may want to work on is the causes and effects of the popularity of fast food restaurants essay. Here, you should employ a classic academic structure of the paper that requires a binary approach, i.e., you have to look both at causes of this problem and its direct consequences, also known as effects. In this regard, you should watch carefully to maintain a perfectly logical order and reasoning. To be completely sure about the links between certain facts and data and your comments on its consequences, look through the list of the most common logical fallacies in order to stay away from things like wrong reasoning or the ‘straw man’ effect. The cause and effect essay can have a few different kinds of structure to begin with. The first and most common type is the chain of causes and effects. In cases when you are working on one little write-up like an addiction to fast food essay, you can use only one to three causes and effects. For example, the regular habit of eating out causes the risk of obesity. The chain of causes and effects would look like a more expanded view of this general cause and effect link: the regular consumption of fast food delivers too many calories and too little nutrition, which causes an unsatisfied desire to eat more, and overeating, in its turn, provokes bad digestion and obesity as a result of it. That would be the chain of causes and effects.

The next type of causation and consequences linkage could also be deployed in a why is fast food bad for us and we keep going back essay. You could have a structure like this. Either there could be one cause and many effects, or it could be many causes that lead to one effect. Basically, here you can find a lot of similar features with the induction and deduction processes. If talking about examples, regular eating out at fast-food restaurants could be the one cause that provokes many long-term effects associated with health risks like obesity, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, high blood pressure, insulin resistance, and so on. Don’t forget to keep an eye on the latest researches in this field to possess the newest information that hasn’t been disproved by scholars recently.

The next structure that we are going to talk about is many causes that lead to one effect. For example, you are writing a should fast food be served with warning labels essay. You can include here many causes that lead to the overconsumption of fast food. That could be the lack of attention to the nutrition labels, the lack of knowledge about what those labels mean or how to count your daily calories, and which amount could be considered the optimal if thinking individually. There are many causes why we don’t care about what is written on those labels. There is also a number of reasons why they could be considered ineffective for reducing the health risks linked with fast food consumption. The labels might contain deceptive or improperly stated information, or they could be confused with advertising labels (like low-calorie, eco, natural, no gluten labels that potentially hide lots of sugars and other chemicals in the same product).

You can also go in the opposite direction in your research. Instead of focusing on the fast food hazards, explore why it became so popular and why so many people from various societal groups prefer eating fast food over other healthier options at full-serving restaurants. This could be examined in a convenience of fast food essay. Similarly, you can also explore both short-term and long-term consequences that the fast-food culture has for people of your country or in the world. You can also discuss the medical and health issues as a direct consequence of the regular fast food consumption and think about how the fast-food culture affects people regarding other social spheres in the effects fast food has on society essay.

Another interesting field for exploration is a comparison of opposing phenomena. They are easy to find in a topic that you are currently working on. Fast food is largely regarded as the opposite of a healthy diet. It is also being polarized to homemade meals. You could discuss the relations between one or a few of these opposing subjects in the fast food vs home cooked meals contrast and comparison essay. Just remember not to paint the fast food all black because this contrast could not be as obvious as you could think at first. For instance, I personally know a few families that cooked their meals only at home. They had lots of fried foods with an enormous amount of fats and carcinogens. Of course, as a result, all the family had an obesity problem, high blood pressure, and heart diseases.

Since the consumption of fast food has a huge impact on society in general, many students and professors tend to look at it from a political point of view. They try to assume and explore whether it would be effective to solve the problem on a governmental level. As a result, questions like the tax regulation of fast-food brands often arise these days. If you like to think of politics, you could pick a “should the government regulate fast food” essay topic. Remember to maintain a balanced approach and to discuss opposing points of view with a rational critical thinking attitude. It would be easier, if you know how to write a critical thinking essay. For example, you may tell about soda tax, which is a tax designed to reduce the consumption of drinks with added sugar. This tax became a matter of public debate in many countries, and beverage producers like Coca-Cola often oppose it.

Often, if you write a persuasive essay, you would be interested in what are people talking about fast food in advertising, political speeches, editorials, newspapers, forums, and blogs. This is exactly the reason why professors and teachers choose contemporary topics for you to discuss, like the dark side of fast food essay. To write this kind of a persuasive essay the best way possible, try to think of yourself as a journalist or a lawyer that fights for a certain opinion to be widely considered. Pick the side you wish to advocate and stand for at all means. The next essential thing to know is your audience. Are they opposing your viewpoint, inclined to favor your side, or still undecided? Depending on that, you would structure your essay.

We could talk for hours about the various ideas for fast food essay topics, but your creativity could do this job even better. The most important thing to do when writing an academic essay is to show your personal approach to the topic and the ability to think critically. Of course, your essay should be adjusted to all the rules and norms of the university formatting, but that is not the main thing that professors usually assess when deciding on what grade to give to some particular essay writing.

So now you know how to approach such a broad and burning topic. We really hope that with the help of our guidelines, you will get the best mark possible. Good luck!

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Why Junk Food Should Cost More Than Healthy Food Essay

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

Every person in the world has to make daily decisions about what they eat. These decisions are based on various factors, including food’s availability, convenience, and taste – and, evidently, its cost. According to Salads Square (2021), it was estimated that, for one person, eating healthily costs approximately $1.5 a day more than eating unhealthily. Savoie-Roskos et al. (n.d.) note that, as a result, people choose less nutritious foods in an attempt to save money. In order to persuade the audience that a solution to this problem is the change of prices to make healthy food more affordable, a problem-cause-solution approach will be used. As per this approach, first, a problem is established; then, the causes of this problem are discussed; after that, a solution is offered.

The problem has been stated, and now it is time to turn to its causes. According to Elementum (2018), to understand the costs of healthy foods, one is to pay attention to the food supply chain. First of all, processed and packaged foods are more efficient in production. Secondly, the transportation of fresh produce is quite expensive since it requires continual refrigeration to prevent spoilage. Thirdly, many organic foods are to be separated from conventional ones in storage, which applies to all supply chain links. Finally, since demand for fresh and organic foods is generally lower, companies cannot do bulk deliveries to reduce logistics costs. When combined together, all of this increases the costs of final products.

When it comes to the solution to this problem, one of the policies that can be implemented is that of competitive pricing. According to County Health Rankings & Roadmaps (2021), competitive pricing is the assignation of higher costs for foods and beverages deemed non-nutritious. This policy includes price discounts, incentives for healthy products, and price increases and disincentives for unhealthy ones. Preliminary data on such interventions indicates that a 1% reduction in prices is connected to more than a 1% increase in required quantities of healthy foods (County Health Rankings & Roadmaps, 2021). To enhance this effect, Pennington Biomedical Research Center (n.d.) suggests providing incentives to store owners, schools, and sport complexes so that they promote healthier snack and beverages options. Since there is no way to affect the cost of organic foods via the food supply chain, it is the government’s mission to ensure that its people are healthy by implementing such policies.

County Health Rankings & Roadmaps. (2021). Competitive pricing for healthy foods .

Elementum. (2018). Why does eating healthier cost more? Medium.

Pennington Biomedical Research Center. (n.d.). Junk food relative pricing [PDF file]. Web.

Salads Square (2021). Why is healthy food so expensive compared to junk food?

Savoie-Roskos, M. R., Jorgensen, M. A., & Durward, C. (n.d.). Does healthy eating cost more? Utah State University.

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IvyPanda. (2023, March 30). Why Junk Food Should Cost More Than Healthy Food. https://ivypanda.com/essays/why-junk-food-should-cost-more-than-healthy-food/

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Harmful Effects of Junk Food Essay for Students and Children

500+ words essay on harmful effects of junk food.

Junk Food is very harmful that is slowly eating away the health of the present generation. The term itself denotes how dangerous it is for our bodies. Most importantly, it tastes so good that people consume it on a daily basis. However, not much awareness is spread about the harmful effects of junk food.

The problem is more serious than you think. Various studies show that junk food impacts our health negatively. They contain higher levels of calories, fats, and sugar. On the contrary, they have very low amounts of healthy nutrients and lack dietary fibers. Parents must discourage their children from consuming junk food because of the ill effects it has on one’s health.

Impact of Junk Food

Junk food is the easiest way to gain unhealthy weight. The amount of fats and sugar in the food makes you gain weight rapidly. However, this is not a healthy weight. It is more of fats and cholesterol which will have a harmful impact on your health. Junk food is also one of the main reasons for the increase in obesity nowadays.

This food only looks and tastes good, other than that, it has no positive points. The amount of calorie your body requires to stay fit is not fulfilled by this food. For instance, foods like French fries, burgers, candy, and cookies, all have high amounts of sugar and fats. Therefore, this can result in long-term illnesses like diabetes and high blood pressure . This may also result in kidney failure .

Above all, you can get various nutritional deficiencies when you don’t consume the essential nutrients, vitamins, minerals and more. You become prone to cardiovascular diseases due to the consumption of bad cholesterol and fat plus sodium. In other words, all this interferes with the functioning of your heart.

Furthermore, junk food contains a higher level of carbohydrates. It will instantly spike your blood sugar levels. This will result in lethargy, inactiveness, and sleepiness. A person reflex becomes dull overtime and they lead an inactive life. To make things worse, junk food also clogs your arteries and increases the risk of a heart attack. Therefore, it must be avoided at the first instance to save your life from becoming ruined.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Ways to Avoid Junk Food

The main problem with junk food is that people don’t realize its ill effects now. When the time comes, it is too late. Most importantly, the issue is that it does not impact you instantly. It works on your overtime; you will face the consequences sooner or later. Thus, it is better to stop now.

You can avoid junk food by encouraging your children from an early age to eat green vegetables. Their taste buds must be developed as such that they find healthy food tasty. Moreover, try to mix things up. Do not serve the same green vegetable daily in the same style. Incorporate different types of healthy food in their diet following different recipes. This will help them to try foods at home rather than being attracted to junk food.

In short, do not deprive them completely of it as that will not help. Children will find one way or the other to have it. Make sure you give them junk food in limited quantities and at healthy periods of time.

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Junk Food in Schools and Childhood Obesity

Ashlesha datar.

RAND Corporation, 1776 Main Street, P.O. Box 2138, Santa Monica, CA 90407, USA, gro.dnar@ratad , Phone: 1-310-393-0411 x7367, Fax: 1-310-260-8161

Nancy Nicosia

RAND Corporation, 20 Park Plaza, 7th Floor, Suite 720, Boston, MA 02116, USA, gro.dnar@aisocin , Phone: 1-617-338-2059 x4227

Despite limited empirical evidence, there is growing concern that junk food availability in schools has contributed to the childhood obesity epidemic. In this paper, we estimate the effects of junk food availability on BMI, obesity, and related outcomes among a national sample of fifth-graders. Unlike previous studies, we address the endogeneity of the school food environment by controlling for children’s BMI at school entry and estimating instrumental variables regressions that leverage variation in the school’s grade span. Our main finding is that junk food availability does not significantly increase BMI or obesity among this fifth grade cohort despite the increased likelihood of in-school junk food purchases. The results are robust to alternate measures of junk food availability including school administrator reports of sales during school hours, school administrator reports of competitive food outlets, and children’s reports of junk food availability. Moreover, the absence of any effects on overall food consumption and physical activity further support the null findings for BMI and obesity.

1. Introduction

The prevalence of childhood obesity in the US is at an all-time high with nearly one-third of all children and adolescents now considered overweight or obese ( Ogden et al 2008 ). Considerable attention has been focused on schools in an attempt to identify policy levers that will help reverse the obesity epidemic. In particular, the availability of “competitive foods”, defined as foods and beverages available or sold in schools outside of the school lunch and breakfast programs, has been a much debated issue. On the one hand, opponents question the nutritional value of competitive foods and consider them the primary source of “junk foods” in schools. Indeed, the available evidence suggests that these foods are higher in fat compared with foods sold as part of the school meal programs ( Gordon et al 2007b , Harnack et al 2000 , Wechsler et al 2000, Story, Hayes & Kalina 1996 ). On the other hand, supporters argue that revenues from these food sales provide much-needed funding for schools, especially in times of budgetary pressures ( Gordon et al 2007a ).

The debate draws from largely cross-sectional research that rarely addresses the potential endogeneity of the school food environment. Our paper advances the literature by attempting to isolate the causal effect of junk food availability on children’s food consumption and BMI. We use longitudinal data on BMI for a national sample of fifth graders from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study – Kindergarten Class (ECLS-K) and an instrumental variables (IV) approach that leverages the well-documented fact that junk foods are significantly more prevalent in middle and high schools relative to elementary schools ( Finkelstein, Hill and Whitaker 2008 ). Plausibly exogenous variation in junk food availability across a cohort of fifth graders is identified using the grade structure in their schools. We argue that a fifth grader attending a combined (e.g. K-8, K-12) or middle school (e.g. 5–8) is more likely to be exposed to junk foods compared to a fifth grader in an elementary school (e.g. K-5, K-6), but that the school’s grade span has no direct effect on a child’s weight. First-stage regressions confirm that combined school attendance is a strong predictor of junk food availability. Further tests for instrument validity including an examination of sorting and peer effects support our use of the instrument.

We find that junk food availability has small positive associations with BMI and obesity in basic OLS models that only control for a limited set of covariates, but those associations become insignificant when controls for BMI at school entry and state fixed effects are added. Our IV models, which address potential bias in the OLS models, generate somewhat larger, albeit less precise, point estimates that are also not statistically significant. Even if the IV point estimates were statistically significant, they would still represent only minor increases in BMI and obesity, generally one-third of one percent. Moreover, reduced form estimates, which are more precisely estimated than IV estimates, provide further support because combined school attendance has no significant effects on 5 th graders’ BMI and obesity. These results are robust to alternative measures of junk food availability and sample restrictions. The models also produce the expected findings on various falsification tests.

While we acknowledge their limitations, ancillary analyses of children’s in-school junk food purchases, total consumption of healthy and unhealthy foods, and physical activity are consistent with our null findings for BMI and obesity. Our estimates suggest that the caloric contributions of in-school junk food purchases are likely to be small. Moreover, we find evidence consistent with substitution between in- and out-of-school consumption. Specifically, the total amount of soda and fast food consumed in- and out-of-school, is not significantly higher among those children with greater exposure to junk food in school (i.e. attending a combined school). And, finally, we find little support for the notion that children substitute calories from healthy foods or increase their physical activity to compensate for increased junk food intake.

The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. We first discuss junk food availability in schools and the findings from the existing literature in Section 2. Section 3 describes our data and relevant analysis variables. In Section 4, we describe our empirical strategy, which leverages longitudinal information on BMI and implements an instrumental variables approach to identify the causal impact of junk food availability. In Section 5, we first discuss our main results for children’s BMI and obesity and then support these findings with robustness checks and falsification tests. We also present supporting evidence from models of in-school purchases of junk food, total consumption of various healthy and unhealthy items, and physical activity. Finally, Section 6 concludes with the policy implications of our findings.

2. Background and Literature

Competitive foods are sold through a la carte lines, vending machines, school canteens/stores, and fundraisers and, in contrast to the federally-reimbursable school meal programs, are not subject to federal nutritional standards. As a result, competitive foods account for much of the variation in the food environment across schools. Competitive foods are available in a large share of schools, although the availability of these foods varies significantly across elementary, middle, and high schools. For example, as many as 97% of high schools and 82% of middle schools have vending machines compared to only 17% of elementary schools ( Gordon et al 2007a ). However, a la carte lines, which are the predominant source of competitive food sales, operate not only in most high (93%) and middle (92%) schools, but also in a large proportion of elementary schools (71%) ( Gordon et al 2007b ).

Sales of competitive foods have the potential to generate significant revenues for schools. During 2005–2006, middle and high schools earned an average of $10,850 and $15,233, respectively, from a la carte sales alone ( Gordon et al 2007a ). In addition, nearly a third of high schools and middle schools earned between $1,000–$9,999 during that same year from vending machines, another ten percent earned between $10,000–$50,000, and a small number earned in excess of $50,000 per year. These revenues may in turn be supplemented by on-site school stores and pouring contracts with beverage companies. While availability and revenues were less common in elementary schools, nearly half of elementary schools had pouring rights contracts, and competitive food sales from fundraising activities were also common.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s regulations on competitive foods in schools had been comprehensive, but in 1983, a successful lawsuit by the National Soft Drink Association limited the scope of these regulations to food service areas during meal hours ( Institute of Medicine 2007 ). In recent years, several states, districts, and schools have enacted competitive food policies that are more restrictive than federal regulations. And, between 2003 and 2005, approximately 200 pieces of legislation were introduced in US state legislatures to establish nutritional standards in schools or to address the availability or quality of competitive foods ( Boehmer et al 2007 ). At the federal level, legislation was passed in 2004 requiring local education agencies to develop a “wellness policy” by 2006 that included nutrition guidelines for all of the foods available in schools. More recently, there has been debate in the US Congress over enacting an amendment to the farm bill that would further restrict the sale of unhealthy foods and beverages in schools ( Black 2007 ). At the local level, two of the largest school districts in the nation, New York City Public School District and Los Angeles Unified School District, imposed a ban on soda vending in schools in 2003 and 2004, respectively.

Despite the growing support for competitive food regulation, it is hard to deny opponents’ claims that the evidence against competitive foods is limited. Existing research does show that competitive food availability is associated with a decline in nutritional quality of meals consumed at school ( Cullen et al 2000 , Cullen & Zakeri 2004 ; Templeton, Marlette & Panemangalore 2005 ). 1 However, less is known about the effects on overall diet quality (consumed both in and out of school) and children’s weight. The literature does provide some evidence of substitution of caloric intake across meals and locations among adults ( Anderson and Matsa 2011 ), but the evidence is less clear regarding children for whom parental oversight can also play a role. Only Kubik and colleagues have examined 24 hour dietary recall (2003) and BMI (2005) among children, however these studies are based on small cross-sectional samples and do not address the potential endogeneity of the school food environment. 2 , 3

The only effort to address endogeneity is in Anderson and Butcher (2006) , who use national data on adolescents aged 14–20 years to examine whether various school food policies influence BMI (based on self-reported height and weight data). In the absence of a single data source containing information on school food policies and BMI among adolescents, the authors use a two-sample IV approach that employs county, state, and regional characteristics as instruments to capture budgetary pressures on schools. They find that a 10 percentage point increase in the proportion of schools in the county that offer junk foods leads to a 1 percent increase in BMI. But this effect is primarily driven by adolescents with an overweight parent, which the authors interpret as a measure of family susceptibility. 4 Their IV approach constitutes an innovation over the literature, but the authors acknowledge that their results may be undermined by a weak first stage.

Our paper adds to the existing literature in its sample, methodology and scope. First, to our knowledge, ours is the only study that addresses the endogeneity of the school food environment among younger children. The focus on fifth graders is useful because junk food regulations are increasingly targeting elementary and middle schools. 5 And our national sample of children provides a larger and more representative sample with significant variation in school environments. Second, our data contain actual measurements of children’s height and weight, unlike the self-reports from other national datasets that have been used to examine this question previously. Third, our approach improves on the common cross-sectional designs by controlling for children’s BMI at school entry and state fixed-effects, and leveraging variation in schools’ grade spans to estimate IV models. Finally, unlike previous studies, we also provide evidence on the underlying mechanisms by examining effects on food consumption and physical activity.

The ECLS-K is a panel dataset on a nationally representative cohort of kindergarteners in the U.S. who entered school in fall 1998. In the fall and spring of kindergarten and the spring of the first, third, and fifth grades, the study collected information from the children and their parents, teachers, and schools on children′s cognitive, social, emotional, physical development (including BMI), and their home, classroom, and school environments. One limitation is that the information on the school food environment and children’s food consumption was collected only in the fifth grade. Our analysis sample includes the approximately 9,380 children attending the fifth grade in public and private schools in the 2003–04 school year. 6 In this section, we describe the key variables for our analyses.

3.1. Dependent Variables Measuring BMI, Food Consumption and Physical Activity

Body mass index (bmi).

A distinct advantage of the ECLS-K is that it collected height and weight measurements from children at kindergarten (school) entry and in the spring of kindergarten and first, third, and fifth grades. Measurements are superior to self- or parent-reported height and weight data that may introduce non-random measurement error. These measurements are used to compute BMI, defined as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared. The average BMI in our sample during the fifth grade is 20.4 ( Table 1 ). Approximately 20% of the ECLS-K sample is categorized as obese – this is nearly identical to prevalence rates among 6–11 years olds from the 2007–8 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey ( Ogden et al 2010 ). 7

Descriptive Statistics in the Fifth Grade

Notes: N=9,380. Means are unweighted. Standard deviation in parentheses.

Junk Food Purchase in School

The food consumption questionnaire collected information on in-school junk food purchase during the fifth grade. These questions asked children about their purchases of sweets, salty snack foods, and sweetened beverages (hereafter, referred to as “soda”) during the previous week. 8 A substantial majority of the children did not purchase junk food in school during the reference week: 77% for sweets, 84% for salty snacks, and 88% for soda (see Appendix Table A1 ). But a large share of these children did not have junk food available in their schools (see Section 3.2). Conditional on availability, about half the sample purchased any of these unhealthy foods at least once a week in school. Among those who did purchase, the modal response was 1 to 2 purchases per week: 68 percent for sweets, 72 percent for salty snacks, and 70 percent for soda. 9

In-School and Total Food Consumption in Fifth Grade

Notes: N=9,380. Percentages are unweighted. Figures in the top panel are not conditional on availability in school.

Total Consumption of Selected Foods and Beverages

The child food consumption questionnaire asked about the frequency of overall consumption of specific food items during the past week. Children were asked to include foods they ate at home, at school, at restaurants, or anywhere else. We examine the consumption of two unhealthy items - soda and fast food, and six healthy food items – milk, green salad, potatoes 10 , carrots, other vegetables, and fruits. The percentage of children not consuming any soda or fast food during the previous week was 16 and 29 percent, respectively, with modal responses at 1 to 3 times per week (see Appendix Table A1 ). Among the healthy foods, green salad, carrots and potatoes were consumed most infrequently with nearly half of children reporting no consumption during the past week. The modal responses for the other healthy foods were 1 to 3 times during the past week.

3.2. Junk Food Availability

Detailed information on junk food availability in schools was collected from the school administrators and from children in the fifth grade. School administrators were asked whether students could purchase 17 individual food and beverage items, either from vending machines, school store, canteen, snack bar or a la carte items from the cafeteria during school hours. From these responses, we constructed an indicator variable of junk food availability in school that equals 1 if the administrator reports that students can purchase food and beverage items containing high sodium and/or sugar, including candy, chocolate, baked foods (e.g. cookies), salty snacks (e.g. potato chips), ice cream or frozen yogurt, or sweetened beverages during school hours, and zero otherwise. 11 Based on these school administrator reports, approximately 61 percent of the children had junk food availability in school. For robustness checks, we also considered two alternative measures of availability. The first is based on whether the modal child at each school reports that foods containing sugar, salty snacks, or sweetened beverages can be purchased at school. Based on this measure, about 75 percent of the children had junk foods available. And the second is based on whether the administrator reports any of the following competitive food outlets operate in the school: vending machines, school stores, canteens, snack bars, and a la carte lines. About 60 percent of the sample had at least one competitive food outlet. 12

4. Empirical Approach

4.1. econometric model.

The relationship between junk food availability and children’s BMI in fifth grade can be estimated cross-sectionally using the following linear regression model.

where, BMI iks , denotes fifth grade BMI for child i attending school k located in state s , JF k captures junk food availability in the child’s school, X i and S k are the vectors of individual/family (gender, age, age interacted with gender, race/ethnicity, mother’s education, household income) and school characteristics (private/public, percent minority, enrollment, urbanicity, state/region), respectively, and ε iks is the error term. The child’s baseline BMI (BBMI i ) is included to address potential heterogeneity that can bias OLS estimates such as student demand for junk foods, genetic susceptibility, and sorting. Because junk food availability is collected only in fifth grade, we do not know the length of exposure during prior school years. Therefore, BMI at school entry is the preferred baseline because it is measured prior to any exposure to the school food environment. Finally, since states differ markedly in terms of obesity prevalence in their populations as well as the policy environment geared towards combating obesity, we include state fixed effects (θ s ) to control for state-specific time-invariant unobserved heterogeneity that may be correlated with school food environments and children’s weight.

The parameter of interest in Equation (1) is β 1 . Obtaining an unbiased estimate of β 1 is challenging because the school food environment is not exogenous to the outcomes of interest. Schools that serve high-fat, energy-dense junk foods may differ on many observable and unobservable factors that are correlated with children’s weight and dietary behavior. In particular, the decision to offer junk foods in schools may be influenced by a variety of factors including budgetary pressures, demands of the student population, parental involvement, and state/district policies. These factors could independently influence children’s weight as well. For example, budgetary pressures may induce schools or districts to scale back or eliminate physical education programs, which might increase children’s weight. As a result, coefficient estimates from the ordinary least squares (OLS) estimation of Equation 1 would be biased.

4.2. Addressing Endogeneity of Junk Food Availability in Schools

We address the potential endogeneity of junk food availability using instrumental variables. Specifically, we estimate the model in Equations (2.1) and (2.2) using Two-Stage Least Squares.

Equation 2.1 represents the first-stage regression where junk food availability (JF k ) is regressed on the combined school attendance instrument (CS k ), individual (X i ) and school (S k ) characteristics, baseline BMI (BBMI i ), and state fixed effects (θ s ). Equation 2.2 represents the second stage where children’s BMI (or obesity) is regressed on the predicted availability of junk foods from the first stage (ĴF k ) in addition to the common covariates.

We also report results from the reduced form, which regresses BMI or obesity directly on the instrument ( Equation 3 ). These results have the advantage of being unbiased and providing evidence of whether a causal relationship exists in the regression of interest. 13

4.2.1. Instrument

Our sample consists of a single cohort of 5 th graders attending schools with a variety of grade spans. Given that junk food availability is significantly higher in middle and high schools compared to elementary schools, a potentially useful instrument for junk food availability is whether the 5 th grader attends a combined school (defined as the highest grade is seventh or higher) or whether the 5 th grader is in an elementary school (defined as highest grade is 5 th or 6 th ). Our instrument considers only this dichotomy of school type: elementary versus combined. Over 70 percent of our sample attends elementary schools while the remainder attends combined schools usually with grade spans of K-8, K-12 and 5–8 (see Appendix Table A2 ).

Variation in Grade Span in Fifth Grade

Notes: N=9380. “Combined” schools are defined as schools with highest grade equal to 7 or higher.

For combined school attendance to be a valid instrument, it must be the case that the school’s grade span has no direct effect on children’s weight except through the junk food environment. One potential concern is that there may be unobserved factors that are correlated with both the likelihood of combined school attendance as well as BMI. For example, it is well known that states differ markedly in the prevalence of childhood obesity. But, states are also likely to differ in terms of factors that contribute to school grade span such as: (1) the size of the school-age population, (2) its distribution within the state, (3) differences in the educational systems and policies, as well as (4) education budgets. Similarly, school grade span can vary across urban versus rural areas (even within states), with the latter more likely to have combined schools largely because of a smaller school-age population. The inclusion of state and urbanicity dummies in our regressions controls for unobserved differences across states and across rural/urban areas that may be correlated with combined school attendance (or grade span, more generally) and BMI.

Another potential concern with this identification strategy is that variation in grade span exposes children to older peers who may influence obesogenic behaviors. Peers, defined broadly, have been shown to influence a wide range of adolescent behaviors and outcomes. 14 However, of particular relevance to our identification strategy is the literature examining a specific type of peer effect, namely, the effect of exposure to older peers due to school grade span.

Several studies have examined peer effects on academic, social-behavioral and substance use outcomes by leveraging variation in school grade span ( Clark and Folk 2007 ; Clark and Loheac 2007 ; Eisenberg 2004 ; Bedard and Do 2005 ; Cook et al 2008 ). Most studies compare students in the same grade who attend middle versus combined schools or middle versus elementary schools . 15 These studies generally find that 6 th or 7 th graders who attend middle school fare poorly compared to those who attend elementary or combined schools. 16 However, we are not aware of any studies that compare children in the same grade level who attend elementary versus combined schools . The exception is Rickles (2005) , whose findings suggest inconsistent effects of elementary versus combined schools attendance on achievement.

Furthermore, there is very limited evidence on the influence of older peers on food choices. Cullen and Zakeri (2004) compared changes in food consumption of 4 th graders who transitioned to middle school in 5 th grade and gained access to school snack bars to changes in food consumption of 5 th graders who were already in middle school. Fourth graders who transitioned to middle school consumed fewer healthy foods compared with the previous school year, but it is not clear whether this was due to the presence of older peers or the change in school food environment.

Overall, the literature suggests that the presence of older peers may adversely affect academic and social behavioral outcomes, but there is less evidence to support effects on their eating behaviors. Nevertheless, if such an effect exists, the potential bias in our IV estimates due to peer effects is likely to be upward. That is, 5 th graders might emulate older peers who are more likely to consume junk foods in school and would therefore tend to be overweight, independent of the school food environment. In that case, an insignificant finding is unlikely to be undermined.

4.2.2. Checks for Instrument Validity

Identification in our IV models relies on the assumption that, conditional on state and urbanicity dummies, the school’s grade span does not influence BMI except through differences in the availability of junk foods. Districts typically determine the grade span at the time of the schools’ opening based on a number of factors including transportation costs, length of bus ride, desired number of transitions, population size, site availability, preferred school size, and likelihood of parental involvement ( Paglin and Fager 1997 ) rather than children’s health outcomes. Changes in grade span over time are possible, but infrequent and similarly-motivated. For example, in our ECLS-K sample, less than 4 percent of the children who remained in the same school between kindergarten and fifth grade experienced a grade-span change from combined to elementary school or vice-versa. While unlikely, it is nevertheless possible that schools may change grade span in response to children’s physical size. Therefore, below we report results from several tests that support the validity of our instruments. These analyses are based on our preferred specification, which controls for the full set of covariates, including state and urbanicity dummies and baseline BMI.

First, we report first-stage estimates of the effect of our instrument – combined school attendance – on junk food availability in school. The first-stage estimates show that combined school attendance significantly increases the likelihood of junk food availability with an F-statistic on the instrument that exceeds 22 ( Table 2 ).

First Stage Regression Estimates of Junk Food Availability in Fifth Grade

Notes: Figures in brackets are robust standard errors clustered at the school level. Other covariates in the model include male, age (months), male*age, race/ethnicity, kindergarten BMI, mother’s education, income, private school dummy, categories for percent minority in school and school enrollment, and state and urbanicity dummies.

Second, since our instrument leverages across school variation we might be concerned that selection into different schools (or communities) might undermine the validity of our instrument. To test for differential selection into combined versus elementary schools, we regress BMI, obesity, test scores, social-behavioral outcomes, and parental involvement measured in kindergarten on combined school attendance in 5 th grade ( Table 3 ). 17 Because these outcomes are determined prior to exposure to school, these comparisons allow us to test for selection. The results suggest that, conditional on observed characteristics, combined school attendance is uncorrelated with pre-exposure BMI, obesity, test scores, social-behavioral outcomes and parental involvement.

Effect of Attending a Combined School on Kindergarten Outcomes

Notes: Each estimate represents a separate regression. Other covariates in the models include age, male, age*male, race/ethnicity, kindergarten BMI (not in model in Columns 1 and 2), mother’s education, income, private school dummy, categories for percent minority in school and school enrollment, and state and urbanicity dummies. Robust standard errors clustered at school level are shown in brackets. For reading, math, self control, and interpersonal skills, higher skills indicate better outcomes. For externalizing and internalizing behavior problems, higher scores indicate worse outcomes. Parent involvement is measured as the sum of the number of times/week that the parent engages in 9 activities with the child (e.g. reading books, talk about nature, do science projects, tell stories).

Third, another concern is that combined school attendance might generate peer effects on BMI, obesity, food consumption and physical activity, independent of junk food availability. We test for the presence of peer effects by regressing these outcomes on combined school attendance using only the sample of schools that do not offer junk foods ( Table 4 ). The results do not provide any support for peer effects on BMI, obesity, food consumption or physical activity. 18

Effect of Combined School Attendance on BMI, Obesity and Related Behaviors Without Junk Food Availability in Fifth Grade

Notes: Each estimate represents a separate regression. All models control for the full set of covariates. Robust standard errors clustered at school level are shown in brackets.

Overall, the instrument appears to be strongly predictive of junk food availability and there is no evidence that selection or peer effects threaten its validity.

We now turn to our main results, which examine the effects of junk food availability on BMI and other outcomes. We first estimate basic OLS models of BMI and obesity, then augment with state fixed effects and baseline BMI to address omitted variable bias and selection, and finally estimate the IV and reduced form specifications (Section 5.1). In Section 5.2, we examine the sensitivity of our results to alternate measures of junk food availability and various sample restrictions. We also report findings from falsification tests. And finally, in Section 5.3, we describe results from ancillary regressions that explore the potential mechanisms underlying our BMI findings. In particular, we examine in-school and total consumption of selected foods and beverages and the availability of and participation in physical activity.

5.1. BMI and Obesity

Our main results focus on whether the availability of junk foods increases BMI and obesity among 5 th graders ( Table 5 ). Columns 1 and 4 in Panel A show the results of basic OLS regressions of log BMI and obesity, respectively, on junk food availability controlling for child, household, and school characteristics. 19 These regressions yield a statistically significant increase in both BMI and obesity when junk food is available, although the point estimates are small. The inclusion of state fixed effects and urbanicity dummies (Panel A, columns 2 and 5) and then baseline BMI measured in kindergarten (Panel A, columns 3 and 6) eliminates the significant coefficients. The fully-specified OLS models have very small, precisely estimated, and statistically insignificant point estimates.

Effects of Junk Food Availability on BMI and Obesity in Fifth Grade

Notes: N=9,380. Robust standard errors clustered at school level are shown in brackets. Other covariates in the model include male, age (months), male*age, race/ethnicity, kindergarten BMI, mother’s education, income, private school dummy, categories for percent minority in school and school enrollment, and state and urbanicity dummies. First stage results are shown in Table 2 .

However, the coefficients from these OLS models may be biased if junk food availability is related to unobserved determinants of children’s BMI. For example, districts with a large population of students at risk for obesity may adopt more stringent nutritional policies that reduce the availability of junk foods in school. In such situations, OLS regressions may show no significant relationship or even a negative relationship between junk food availability and BMI. OLS estimates might also suffer from attenuation bias due to the presence of measurement error in the junk food availability measures.

To address these issues, we estimate instrumental variables (IV) and reduced form regressions using grade span as the instrument: whether the 5 th grader attends a combined school with older peers. 20 The IV point estimates are relatively larger than the OLS estimates, but less precisely estimated rendering them statistically insignificant ( Table 5 , Panel B). 21 , 22 IV estimates from models that do not control for state and urbanicity dummies and baseline BMI (columns 1 and 4) are much larger than those in our preferred specification (Columns 3 and 6), although they are not statistically significantly different from each other. Even if the IV point estimates in our preferred specification (columns 3 and 6) were significant, they would represent only small increases in BMI and obesity of less than one-third of one percent. Hausman tests that check for the endogeneity of junk food availability by comparing estimates from the fully-specified OLS regression with the IV cannot reject the null hypothesis that both estimates are consistent. Therefore, we also report the reduced form estimates of BMI and obesity regressed directly on our instrument ( Table 5 , Panel C). The coefficients on the instrument are close to zero and very precisely estimated, which further confirm the null findings. Given concerns about unobserved heterogeneity in the OLS specifications and the larger standard errors in the IV specifications, the reduced form estimates are preferred.

5.2. Sensitivity and Falsification Checks

We conducted a number of sensitivity analyses to test the robustness of our findings. In this section, we report results from a few key analyses and then turn to falsification tests. 23 These analyses control for the full set of covariates, including state and urbanicity dummies and baseline BMI.

For the sensitivity analyses, we first re-estimate our BMI and obesity regressions with the two alternate measures of junk food availability ( Table 6 ). Both the child-reported measure of junk food availability and the school-administrator reported measure of competitive food outlet show no effect of junk food availability on BMI or obesity. Next, we re-estimate the models with the exclusion of three particular groups that might confound our instrument ( Table 7 ). First, because combined schools are much more likely to be private, our instruments may simply capture variation across public versus private schools students, even though the regressions control for private school attendance. We re-estimate the models on a sample that excludes children who attend private schools ( Table 7 , Panel A) and find no effects on BMI and obesity. 24 Second, even though Section 4.2.2 suggests there are no peer effects on BMI and related behaviors, we test the sensitivity of our results to exclusion of the oldest peers (e.g., grade 9 or higher), but still find no evidence of an effect on BMI and obesity ( Table 7 , Panel B). Finally, children who switch schools for unobservable reasons potentially related to junk food availability may bias our estimates, but estimates from models that exclude children who changed schools between kindergarten and fifth grade confirm no effects ( Table 7 , Panel C). The point estimates from the OLS, IV and reduced form regressions for these sensitivity checks are essentially zero, though less precisely estimated in the IV models. 25

Effects of Alternate Measures of Junk Food Availability on BMI and Obesity in Fifth Grade

Notes: N=9,380

Effects of Junk Food Availability on BMI and Obesity in Fifth Grade with Alternate Sample Restrictions

Notes: All models include the full set of covariates. Robust standard errors clustered at school level are shown in brackets. Hausman tests for consistency of OLS estimates could not be rejected in any case. The tests are not reported in the table.

As falsification tests, we examined whether junk food availability in the fifth grade influenced children’s height in the fifth grade and their pre-exposure BMI. Height should clearly be unrelated. And indeed, the coefficients are essentially zero and insignificant ( Table 8 ). Because BMI and obesity in kindergarten is measured prior to exposure to junk foods in school, any effects would suggest unobserved heterogeneity. The OLS, IV and reduced form point estimates are close to zero (though the IV estimates are less precise) and the reduced form specifications also show no relationship ( Table 9 , Panel A). Results for BMI and obesity measured in first and third grade likewise confirm insignificant effects of junk food availability during fifth grade ( Table 9 , Panels B and C). However, because our data do not contain information on junk food availability prior to 5 th grade, these results are also consistent with the absence of junk foods in earlier grades.

Effect of Junk Food Availability in School on Height in Fifth Grade

Note: N=9,380. Robust standard errors clustered at school level are shown in brackets.

Effects of Junk Food Availability on BMI and Obesity in Kindergarten, First, and Third Grade

Notes: Each estimate represents a separate regression. All models include the full set of covariates. Robust standard errors clustered at school level are shown in brackets.

5.3. Effects of Junk Food Availability on Food Consumption and Physical Activity

The consistent lack of significant findings for BMI and obesity raises questions regarding how the energy balance equation is affected by junk food availability. While we cannot measure children’s energy intake and expenditure explicitly with these data, we can examine whether junk food availability influences general food consumption patterns and physical activity. Unlike BMI and obesity, the consumption and physical activity measures are based on parents’ and children’s reports . As a result, they are subject to measurement error and consequently produce noisier estimates particularly for the IV models. Nevertheless, they represent our best opportunity for understanding important mechanisms underlying our null finding. Therefore, for the in-school junk food purchases, total consumption, and physical activity analyses, we focus mainly on the reduced form results (though we provide OLS results for comparison). 26

5.3.1 In-School Purchases and Overall Consumption

One potential explanation for our null findings for BMI and obesity may be that availability does not impact overall food consumption. This may happen for several different reasons. First, young children may not purchase significant amounts of junk food in school either due to limited access to such foods or fewer discretionary resources to purchase them. Second, children may not change their total consumption of junk food because junk food purchased in school simply substitutes for junk food brought from home. Or third, children may not change their overall consumption during the day, but simply substitute between junk food consumed in-school and out-of-school.

Unfortunately, we cannot completely separate out these possible explanations because the ECLS-K does not provide us with full information about the daily dietary intake of each child. However, we do have information about in-school purchases of foods with sugar, salty snacks, and sweetened beverages for those children with in-school availability. We also have total (in-school plus out-of-school) consumption of soda, fast food, and a variety of healthy foods for all children in the sample. While not definitive, we can use this information to gain some insight into underlying eating behaviors and lend support for our BMI and obesity findings.

Not surprisingly, our analysis of in-school consumption of junk foods does confirm that children purchase junk food when it is available. 27 The OLS estimates show a significant relationship for purchases of all types of junk food when junk foods are available in schools ( Table 10 , Panel A). And the reduced form estimates show that children in combined schools are between 5 and 9 percentage points more likely to purchase junk foods compared to those in elementary schools Table 10 , Panel B).

Effect of Junk Food Availability on In-School Junk Food Purchases in Fifth Grade

Notes: N=9380. Each estimate represents a separate regression. Dependent variables in columns (1)–(3) are dichotomous and capture whether any purchase of that item was made in school during the last week. All regressions include the full set of covariates. Robust standard errors clustered at school level are shown in brackets.

To provide a sense of the caloric contribution of these purchases, we multiplied the increase in the probability of purchase from attending a combined school by the median number of times that food was purchased among children who purchased at least once, by the number of the calories per unit. 28 Summing across the three junk food groups yields 50 calories per week (7 calories per day) from in-school junk food purchases. The caloric contribution of in-school purchases is much higher (435 calories per week or 62 calories per day for the median child) among children who purchase these foods (as opposed to merely having them available). But even the 62 calories per day represents less than a quarter (23 percent) of the daily discretionary calorie allowance (267 calories) for a moderately active fifth grader. 29

It is possible that children substitute in-school purchases for snacks brought from home or eaten at home either due to satiation or parental monitoring. With our simple dietary recall measures, we cannot explicitly test the nature of potential substitution. We can, however, examine the total intake of soda and fast food consumed in and out of school. Soda is of particular interest because it is the only item for which children were asked about both their in-school and total consumption separately. Fast food, on the other hand, does not correspond exactly to the in-school snack food consumption categories. We find that junk food availability is not associated with significant increases in children’s total consumption of soda or fast foods ( Table 11 , Columns 1 and 2). 30 The OLS regressions show negative, though generally insignificant, estimates. 31 More importantly, the reduced form estimates confirm that there is no relationship between combined school attendance and total consumption of soda and fast food. The fact that children who consume soda and other junk food in schools show no evidence of an increase in total consumption provides support for the substitution hypothesis. This finding is also consistent with the literature, which indicates that only 27 percent of soda and sweetened drinks consumed in elementary schools are bought at school compared to 67 percent brought from home ( Briefel et al 2009 ).

Effect of Junk Food Availability on Total Consumption of Selected Unhealthy and Healthy Foods in Fifth Grade

Notes: N=9380. Each estimate represents a separate regression. Dependent variable captures the number of times the food or beverage item was consumed during the last 7 days. All models include the full set of covariates. Robust standard errors clustered at school level are shown in brackets.

While BMI is a widely-used outcome measure, it does not capture nutritional changes. Just because children are not gaining weight does not mean that their diets are not adversely affected by junk food availability. If children are consuming junk food in lieu of healthy foods, there may still be concerns about their nutrition. Columns 3 through 8 of Table 11 examine whether children with in-school availability of junk foods consume less milk, green salad, carrots, potatoes, other vegetables, and fruit. The OLS results show no significant associations with junk food availability. Moreover, reduced form regressions also show that combined school attendance does not significantly impact total consumption of the healthy foods. 32

Physical Activity

The absence of any effects of junk food availability on BMI despite the in-school purchases of junk food also raises questions regarding potential compensatory changes in the availability of and participation in physical activity. For example, revenues from junk food sales may be used to fund playgrounds or pay for physical education instructors. Or it may be that combined schools simply offer more opportunities for physical activity due to their scale and organization relative to elementary schools. Another possibility is that parents or children may increase children’s physical activity to balance junk food intake. If physical activity is greater, then we may find no change in BMI or obesity despite an increase in caloric intake.

OLS and reduced form estimates for school- and parent-reported physical activity measures are reported in Table 12 . OLS estimates show no relationship between junk food availability and minutes per week of physical education at school, minutes per week of recess at school, and parent-reported participation in physical activity (measured as the number of days per week that the child engaged in exercise that causes rapid heart beat for 20 continuous minutes or more). The reduced form regressions show no significant effects of combined school attendance on minutes per week of physical education instruction. Children attending combined school have fewer minutes of recess ( Table 12 , Column 2), but slightly higher days of parent-reported physical activity ( Table 12 , Column 3) though neither finding is statistically significant at.conventional levels. Overall, the regressions do not provide consistent evidence that increased energy expenditure explains the null finding for BMI and obesity.

Effects of Junk Food Availability on Physical Education, Recess and Physical Activity in Fifth Grade

Notes: Each estimate represents a separate regression. All models include the full set of covariates as well as the baseline (kindergarten) measure of the dependent variable. Robust standard errors clustered at school level are shown in brackets.

6. Conclusion

Junk food availability is a prominent issue for middle and high schools in the U.S. However, there is also widespread legislation and regulation targeting junk foods even in elementary school ( Trust for American’s Health 2009 ). Young children’s access to junk foods in school is an important concern due to the strong correlation between childhood overweight and obesity in adolescence and adulthood ( Institute of Medicine 2005 ). In this paper, we examined whether junk food availability increased BMI and obesity among a national sample of 5th graders. Those 5th graders who attend a combined school are much more likely to have junk food availability relative to those in elementary school. While estimates from naïve models that only control for a limited set of covariates suggest a positive association between junk foods in school and BMI and obesity, fully-specified OLS models that control for BMI at school entry and state fixed-effects demonstrate no statistically or economically significant relationships among these young children. Likewise, the IV and reduced form models, which are not subject to the potential bias undermining OLS models, confirm the null findings for BMI and obesity. These results are not sensitive to various robustness checks including alternate measures of junk food availability and sample restrictions.

Finally, we provide further support for the null findings by examining in-school and overall food consumption patterns as well as physical activity. The null effects on BMI and obesity cannot be explained entirely by limited access or limited discretionary resources among young children because 5 th graders do purchase junk food when it is available in schools. However, our results suggest that the caloric contribution of in-school purchases is likely to be small. Moreover, we find no evidence of significant changes in the overall frequency of consumption of soda and fast food, which is consistent with children substituting in-school purchases of junk food for that taken from or eaten at home. Alternative explanations such as compensatory changes children’s consumption of healthy foods and in their opportunities for and participation in physical activity do not appear to play a significant role in explaining our null findings for BMI and obesity.

Our findings may have implications in the current economic environment. Half of the states are projecting budget shortfalls that threaten staffing, compensation, extracurricular activities, and policy initiatives such as mandated limits on class size. 33 Many schools subsidize their funding with revenue from the sale of junk foods. In total, elementary schools earn approximately $442 million annually from junk food sales ( Institute of Medicine 2007 ). In light of our findings, certain policy measures, such as outright bans on junk food sales (at least among elementary school children), might appear premature given that they remove a key source of discretionary funds.

While our results are robust, we caution that we could not consider the full range of consequences of junk food availability. Not only are the dietary intake measures in the ECLS-K limited, but we are also not able to examine whether related health outcomes such as diet quality or dental caries are influenced by junk food availability. Also, we are unable to examine the generalizability of our findings to older children who may have greater junk food access and intake both in and outside school. And finally, we could not consider whether exclusive contracts between schools and beverage/snack companies influence students’ food choices in the longer run through product or brand recognition. Additional research is necessary to fully understand the potential consequences before costly legislation is implemented. Such research might also consider the consequences of junk food regulations on school finances and the extent to which these financial consequences could be mitigated by the sale of more nutritious alternatives or through alternative financing mechanisms.

Means by Attendance in Elementary Versus Combined School and by Private/Public

Notes: N=9,380.

Effect of Grade-Span on Academic and Social-Behavioral Outcomes Among Schools Without Junk Food Availability in Fifth Grade

Acknowledgments

This research was funded by grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Healthy Eating Research Program, NIH R01 HD057193, the Bing Center for Health Economics at RAND, and the RAND Labor and Population Program. All opinions are those of the authors and do not represent opinions of the funding agencies.

1 Other studies have examined the effects of price reductions, increases in availability, and promotion of low-fat foods in secondary schools on sales and purchases of these foods ( French et al 2004 , 2001 , 1997a , 1997b , Jeffery et al 1994 ) as well as their consumption ( Perry et al 2004 ) within experimental settings and found positive effects.

2 Kubik et al (2003) find that a la carte availability in school is negatively associated with overall intake of fruits and vegetables and positively associated with total and saturated fat intake among 7 th graders attending 16 Minneapolis-St Paul schools. Using the same data, Kubik et al (2005) show that using competitive foods as rewards and incentives is positively associated with BMI.

3 Also, using the ECLS-K, Fernandes (2008) found small positive associations between soda availability in schools and both in-school and overall soda consumption of fifth graders.

4 Their results for the other school policies, pouring rights contracts, and food and beverage advertisements are smaller and less precise.

5 For example, California’s first nutrition policy (SB 677) implemented beverage standards for elementary and middle schools, not high schools.

6 All sample sizes have been rounded to the nearest 10 per the ECLS-K’s restricted-use data agreement.

7 Obesity is defined as BMI greater than the 95 th percentile for age and gender on the Center for Disease Control growth charts.

8 Sweets include candy, ice cream, cookies, brownies or other sweets; salty snack foods include potato chips, corn chips, Cheetos, pretzels, popcorn, crackers or other salty snacks, and sweetened beverages include soda pop, sports drinks or fruit drinks that are not 100 percent juice.

9 To validate the ECLS-K estimates, we examined the Third School Nutrition and Dietary Assessment Study (SNDA-III), which collected 24-hour dietary recall from 2,300 children attending a nationally representative sample of public schools in 2005. Similar to the ECLS-K, eighty percent of elementary school children reported no competitive food purchases. Among children who made a purchase, the median daily caloric intake from these foods was 185 calories. The SNDA estimate is higher than our ECLS-K estimates (62 calories reported in Section 5) because it includes healthy foods purchased from competitive food venues: for example, milk was by far the most popular item purchased from competitive food venues and yogurt also ranked highly.

10 The “potatoes” category excluded French fries, fried potatoes, and potato chips.

11 The questionnaire separately asked about availability of high- and low-fat options for baked foods, salty snacks, and ice cream/frozen yogurt/sherbert. We include both the low- and high-fat options in our measure, however, in sensitivity analyses, we used only the high-fat versions to construct our school-administrator based measure of junk food availability and found results to be similar.

12 We rely mainly on the first measure of junk food availability because it is the most specific with respect to the quality of foods and because school-level policies regarding junk food availability are frequently set by school principals and staff ( Gordon et al 2007a ). We prefer this measure over the simple dichotomy of having any (unregulated) competitive food outlets because the outlet-based measure does not differentiate the type of foods sold (e.g. milk vs. soda). We also prefer it over the child-report because children who do not consume junk foods are less likely to accurately report availability and because children reported only the availability of any sweets, salty snacks, or sweetened beverages, but did not differentiate specific items (e.g. low-fat vs. high-fat).

13 The value of reduced form regressions has been highlighted by Angrist and Krueger (2001) and, more recently, Chernozhukov and Hansen (2008) formally show that the test for instrument irrelevance in the reduced form regression can be viewed as a weak-instrument-robust test of the hypothesis that the coefficient on the endogenous variable in the structural equation is zero.

14 This literature examines peer effects on a wide range of outcomes including substance use ( Lundborg 2006 ; Eisenberg 2004 ; Case and Katz 1991 ; Gaviria and Raphael 2001 ), crime ( Case and Katz 1991 ; Glaeser, Sacerdote, and Scheinkman 1996 ; Regnerus 2002 ), teenage pregnancy ( Crane 1991 ; Evans, Oates and Schwab 1992 ), discipline ( Cook et al 2008 ), academic achievement ( Hanushek et al 2003 ; Cook et al 2008 ), adolescent food choices ( Perry, Kelder, Komro 1993 ; Cullen et al 2001 ; French et al 2004 ) and weight ( Trogdon, Nonnemaker and Pais 2008 ).

15 However, Clark and Loheac (2007) estimate how substance use behavior of students within the same school who are one year older influences adolescent substance use and find a positive relationship.

16 One exception is Eisenberg (2004) who finds that 7 th and 8 th graders who attend schools with older peers are no more likely to use substances relative to those who attend schools with younger peers.

17 We also examined unadjusted differences in children’s individual, family and school characteristics during the 5 th grade (see Appendix Table A3 ). There were slight differences for some of the covariates. However, there was no overall pattern in the socioeconomic factors that would threaten the validity of the IV approach: that is, some differences imply better BMI outcomes for one group and others worse. For example, in our sample, elementary school students are more likely to be Hispanic and Asian while combined school students are more likely to be white. There are no differences in the share that are Black. Similarly, there is no consistent pattern in maternal education. Elementary school students are more likely to have poorly and highly educated mothers (less than high school, more than Bachelors).

18 To check whether these null findings are merely due to lack of power instead of absence of peer effects, we estimated the same models using social-behavioral outcomes and test scores as dependent variables because the literature finds evidence of peer effects on these outcomes. We were able to identify statistically significant peer effects on social-behavioral outcomes (but not test scores), which suggests that lack of power is an unlikely explanation for the finding of null peer effects on BMI and related outcomes.

19 In all models, we estimate robust standard errors clustered at the school level.

20 In alternate analyses, we used continuous measures of the highest and lowest grades in the school as instruments. In these over-identified models, both instruments had a strong positive association with junk food availability (i.e. increases in the highest and lowest grades available at the school were strongly predictive of junk food availability). This approach yielded qualitatively similar results as the exactly-identified models (available upon request).

21 The IV regressions were also estimated without baseline BMI. The point estimates, first-stage F-statistics, and Hausman tests yield similar results (available upon request).

22 A concern with our IV specification estimated via two-stage least-squares is that our first stage models do not account for the dichotomous nature of the treatment variable ( Maddala 1983 ). Estimates from binary treatment effect IV models confirm that the effects of junk food availability on BMI are neither substantive nor significant (available upon request).

23 We also conducted additional sensitivity analyses not reported here. First, given that we do not know the exposure to junk food in previous grades and given concerns that genetic susceptibility may not have a constant proportional effect on BMI at every point in the life cycle, we controlled for 1 st or 3 rd grade BMI instead of BMI in Kindergarten and obtained similar results. Second, inclusion of controls for school meal participation did not change our findings. Third, we used BMI z-scores as the dependent variable to accurately control for age and gender influences on BMI and obtained qualitatively similar results. Fourth, we estimated quantile regressions to test whether the effects of junk food availability varied across the BMI distribution, but found no evidence for heterogeneous effects. Finally, we also re-estimated our BMI and obesity models separately for each gender. The results for junk food availability mirrored those for the full sample. The OLS, IV, and RF models show no significant effects of junk food availability for either boys or girls. Still we may be concerned about differential peer effects, for example, if girls are influenced by older peers’ concerns about body image, which would bias our IV estimates downward. Restricting the sample to those boys and girls attending schools without junk food availability, the coefficients from the reduced form were nearly identical to those based on the full sample of boys and girls, which suggests that peer effects are not an issue even when regressions are gender-specific.

24 Estimates based only on the sample of private schools yield small and statistically insignificant effects of competitive food availability on BMI in both OLS and IV specifications, although the F-statistics for the instrument in the first stage were smaller (Results available upon request).

25 Hausman tests cannot reject the consistency of fully-specified OLS estimates in any of our sensitivity checks.

26 Although not shown, the IV (Wald) estimates are easily calculated by dividing the reduced form estimates in Table 10 – Table 12 by 0.2 (first stage estimate from Table 2 ). The IV coefficients are never significant in part due to the larger standard errors in the regressions of reported eating behaviors and physical activity.

27 We dichotomize the in-school purchase variables and estimate linear probability models since much of the variation in junk food purchases at school occurs on the extensive margin.

28 The median number of times an item is purchased in school among children who purchase at least once is 1.5 times (1–2 times per week). We assume that salty snacks add 140 calories (typical calories from a bag of potato chips), sweets add 200 calories (typically calories from a candy bar), and soda adds 150 calories. Given the limitations of the consumption data in the ECLS-K, we caution the reader to treat these caloric intake calculations as approximations.

29 Discretionary calories are the difference between an individual’s total energy requirement and the energy necessary to meet nutrient requirements. According to Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the discretionary allowance for a 2000 calorie diet is 267 calories. See: http://www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/dga2005/document/html/chapter2.htm#table3 accessed August 22, 2008.

30 The total consumption variables are not dichotomized because there is sufficient variation on the intensive margin.

31 Negative binomial models with a binary treatment variable to account for the count-data distribution of the total consumption variable and the binary nature of junk food availability produced qualitatively similar results. (Results available upon request).

32 Given the limitations of the ECLS-K’s consumption variables, we again examined the SNDA-III data and found no evidence that combined school attendance increases total caloric intake.

33 “Schools expect budget cuts as economy sours: State problems, decline in property values eat away at district funds”. Available at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23116409/ (Accessed February 10, 2009).

Contributor Information

Ashlesha Datar, RAND Corporation, 1776 Main Street, P.O. Box 2138, Santa Monica, CA 90407, USA, gro.dnar@ratad , Phone: 1-310-393-0411 x7367, Fax: 1-310-260-8161.

Nancy Nicosia, RAND Corporation, 20 Park Plaza, 7th Floor, Suite 720, Boston, MA 02116, USA, gro.dnar@aisocin , Phone: 1-617-338-2059 x4227.

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