Junk Food Is Becoming Bigger Part of Kids' Diets

Parents know junk food is bad for their kids, but we're letting our children increasingly snack on more chips, candy, and other bad-for-you items.

A University of North Carolina study found that junk food is accounting for almost 30 percent of calories kids take in. About 98 percent of children are snacking outside their regular three meals a day, and that's up from 74 percent in 1977. And we wonder why our kids are getting fatter?

Here are some more details from the Triangle Business Journal:

"Our study shows that children, including very young children, eat snacks almost three times a day," said senior author Barry Popkin, the Carla Smith Chamblee distinguished professor of nutrition at UNC's Gillings School of Global Public Health. "Such findings raise concerns that more children in the United States are moving toward a dysfunctional eating pattern, one that can lead to unhealthy weight gain and obesity."

The study, published in the March edition of the journal Health Affairs, is among the first to study long-term trends in childhood eating habits. The study suggests children are eating almost continually throughout the day.

The issue would not be as much of a problem if children were reaching for healthy snacks, such as fruits and vegetables, or drinking glasses of milk. But the researchers found children tend to gravitate toward salty and fatty snacks like chips and cookies and are drinking sugary fruit juices and sports drinks.

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