--- title: Fast Food Could Make Children Perform Worse in School description: New study shows that kids who eat the most fast food have lower test scores in science, math and reading canonical: https://time.com/3643622/fast-food-school-children-grades/ author: Per Liljas article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-22T09:27:14.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T03:03:08.243Z article:section: Science og:title: Fast Food Could Make Children Struggle in School og:description: Kids who eat the most fast food have lower test scores in science, math and reading og:url: https://time.com/3643622/fast-food-school-children-grades/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltba6c716a0b3859fa/6987705f06f2c11bba3330af/180411591.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1651 og:image:height: 929 og:image:alt: 180411591 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Fast Food Could Make Children Struggle in School twitter:description: Kids who eat the most fast food have lower test scores in science, math and reading twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltba6c716a0b3859fa/6987705f06f2c11bba3330af/180411591.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Fast Food Could Make Children Perform Worse in School by [Per Liljas](https://time.com/author/per-liljas/) ## Per Liljas Dec 22, 2014 9:27 AM UTC  Jamie Grill—Getty by [Per Liljas](https://time.com/author/per-liljas/) ## Per Liljas Dec 22, 2014 9:27 AM UTC A new study [shows](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/healthyeating/11306115/Fast-food-slows-the-brain-new-study-finds.html) 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. \[[_Telegraph_](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/healthyeating/11306115/Fast-food-slows-the-brain-new-study-finds.html)\] ```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"}}]}] ```