--- description: New study shows that kids who eat the most fast food have lower test scores in science, math and reading title: Fast Food Could Make Children Struggle in School image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltba6c716a0b3859fa/6987705f06f2c11bba3330af/180411591.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Science](/section/science/) ## Science Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [human behavior](/tag/human-behavior/) ## human behavior Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Fast Food Could Make Children Perform Worse in School by [Per Liljas](/author/per-liljas/) ## Per Liljas Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 22, 2014 9:27 AM CUT  Jamie Grill—Getty by [Per Liljas](/author/per-liljas/) ## Per Liljas Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 22, 2014 9:27 AM CUT A new study [shows](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/healthyeating/11306115/Fast-food-slows-the-brain-new-study-finds.html "undefined") that children who regularly eat fast food don’t perform as well as their fellow students in school. “Research has been focused on how children’s food consumption contributes to the child-obesity epidemic,” Kelly Purtell of Ohio State University, who led the study, told the _Telegraph_. “Our findings provide evidence that eating fast food is linked to another problem: poorer academic outcomes.” The study, published in _Clinical Pediatrics_, measured the fast-food consumption of 8,500 American 10-year-olds and then reviewed their academic test results three years later. The children were a nationally representative sample and researchers took into account more than two dozen factors other than fast food that could skew the results. Among those who ate fast food on a daily basis, the average science score was 79, as compared with 83 for those who never ate fast food. Similar results were discovered for reading and math. \[[_Telegraph_](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/healthyeating/11306115/Fast-food-slows-the-brain-new-study-finds.html "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3643622/fast-food-school-children-grades/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3643622/fast-food-school-children-grades/"},"headline":"Fast Food Could Make Children Perform Worse in School","datePublished":"2014-12-22T09:27:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T03:03:08.243Z","description":"New study shows that kids who eat the most fast food have lower test scores in science, math and reading","url":"https://time.com/3643622/fast-food-school-children-grades/","keywords":["human behavior","Food","School"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltba6c716a0b3859fa/6987705f06f2c11bba3330af/180411591.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Per Liljas","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/per-liljas/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltba6c716a0b3859fa/6987705f06f2c11bba3330af/180411591.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"180411591","caption":"","creditText":"Jamie Grill—Getty","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/human-behavior/","name":"human behavior"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3643622/fast-food-school-children-grades/","name":"Fast Food Could Make Children Perform Worse in School"}}]}] ```