--- title: 34% of Kids Eat Fast Food on a Given Day, Study Says description: New federal data reveal that in 2011-2012, more than one third of kids and adolescents ate fast food on a given day canonical: https://time.com/4035490/fast-food-kids/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-16T04:01:32.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:04:56.388Z article:section: Health og:title: 34% of Kids Eat Fast Food on a Given Day, Study Says og:description: New federal data reveal that in 2011-2012, more than one third of kids and adolescents ate fast food on a given day og:url: https://time.com/4035490/fast-food-kids/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaaf3798de768a62d/698863b60b72e34f736e5d3d/fast-food.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5120 og:image:height: 2880 og:image:alt: a fast food tray full of hamburgers og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 34% of Kids Eat Fast Food on a Given Day, Study Says twitter:description: New federal data reveal that in 2011-2012, more than one third of kids and adolescents ate fast food on a given day twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaaf3798de768a62d/698863b60b72e34f736e5d3d/fast-food.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 34% of Kids Eat Fast Food on a Given Day, Study Says > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ## Video: Should I Eat Pizza? [Watch (HLS stream): Should I Eat Pizza?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/NvpgAWn5.m3u8) (1:39)  _Published 2015-02-12. You might be surprised that four out of five health experts give pizza the thumbs up. But don’t be fooled: these are not greasy thumbs._ by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Sep 16, 2015 4:01 AM UTC  Getty Images by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Sep 16, 2015 4:01 AM UTC By now, we know that consistently eating fast food is not a good choice for our waistlines or our health. But new federal data reveal that more than one third of kids and adolescents eat fast food on any given day. The study, published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics, looked at the latest data from 2011-2012 gathered from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Researchers found that kids and adolescents ate an average of 12.4% of their daily calories from fast food. Kids ages 12 to 19 ate twice as many calories from fast food restaurants as children ages two to 11\. In total, close to 34% of children and adolescents from ages two to 19 ate fast food on a given day. **MORE**: [25 Fast Food Chains Ranked on Antibiotics Usage](http://time.com/4033496/fast-food-antibiotics/) The researchers did not find any differences in caloric consumption by gender, weight or poverty status. However, they did find that non-Hispanic Asian children ate considerably less calories from fast food restaurants compared to non-Hispanic white, non-Hispanic black and Hispanic children. “Previous studies have reported that acculturation to the U.S. lifestyle plays an important role in the adoption of unhealthy behaviors, such as fast food consumption, in Asian-American and other immigrant groups,” the study authors write. A healthy diet is important for a healthy weight, and eating fast food fare has been linked to weight gain among adults and poorer diet quality among children, the researchers note. According to the CDC, obesity among children has more than doubled in kids and quadrupled in adolescents over the [last three decades](http://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/obesity/facts.htm). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4035490/fast-food-kids/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4035490/fast-food-kids/"},"headline":"34% of Kids Eat Fast Food on a Given Day, Study Says","datePublished":"2015-09-16T04:01:32.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:04:56.388Z","description":"Kids and adolescents ate 12% of their daily calories from fast food","url":"https://time.com/4035490/fast-food-kids/","keywords":["Diet & Nutrition","calories","kids","Obesity","weight","Fast Food","adolescents","childhood obesity","calorie"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaaf3798de768a62d/698863b60b72e34f736e5d3d/fast-food.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alexandra Sifferlin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaaf3798de768a62d/698863b60b72e34f736e5d3d/fast-food.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"a fast food tray full of hamburgers","caption":"a fast food tray full of hamburgers","creditText":"Getty Images","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/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/dietnutrition/","name":"Diet & Nutrition"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4035490/fast-food-kids/","name":"34% of Kids Eat Fast Food on a Given Day, Study Says"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Should I Eat Pizza?","description":"You might be surprised that four out of five health experts give pizza the thumbs up. 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