Study Shows a Little Money Buys a Lot of Calories at City Corner Stores

[The Straight Story]

Study Shows a Little Money Buys a Lot of Calories at City Corner Stores

Washington, D.C.--(ENEWSPF)--October 12, 2009. Children in Philadelphia who attended public schools and shopped at corner stores before or after school purchased almost 360 calories of foods and beverages per visit, according to new research published in Pediatrics. Chips, candy and sugar-sweetened beverages were the most frequently purchased items. This is the first study to document both what foods and beverages children purchased in local corner stores on their way to and from school, and the nutritional content of those items.

Lead researcher Kelley Borradaile, Ph.D., from the Center for Obesity Research and Education at Temple University, and colleagues from The Food Trust conducted over 800 surveys of students in grades 4 to 6 outside of 24 corner stores in Philadelphia. Research staff interviewed children about their purchases immediately after they were made, and also recorded the type, weight and size of each item purchased to collect nutritional information. Children in the study were from one of 10 urban K-8 schools, and over 80 percent of the students enrolled in the schools qualified for free or reduced-price meals. Other key findings from the study include:

* Over 53 percent of students reported shopping at corner stores once daily, five days per week.
* Almost 29 percent of the students surveyed shopped at corner stores both before and after school, five days per week.
* On average, children spent a little over a dollar to purchase 356 calories of snack food and/or drinks during each visit. With just a dollar, children could buy an 8-ounce beverage, a single serving bag of chips, an assortment of candy and gum, and a popsicle.
* Chips were the most frequently purchased item, accounting for about 34 percent of all items purchased, followed by candy, sugar-sweetened beverages and gum.

“This is the first study to show what children purchase from corner stores before and after school,” said Borradaile. “It is troubling that so little money buys so many calories. Corner stores are an important part of the urban landscape, and they have a significant impact on the amount and quality of calories children consume.”

http://tinyurl.com/yj69pln

We need to change it so you have to be 18 to buy anything :)

[Hannah Bell]

1. i call bullshit on this. not at *my* corner store can you get all this for $1.

"an 8-ounce beverage, a single serving bag of chips, an assortment of candy and gum, and a popsicle."

you could get about 1 of those things with change.

[Happyhippychick]

2. I had the exact same thought.

[surrealAmerican]

3. It's the same stuff 9 to 12 year-olds have bought...

... for the last 100 years. It's not news that kids like candy, chips, and soda.

[The Straight Story]

4. Today it is news because now we are going to be paying for everyone's health, so we own stock in you

and your kids....

The control freaks in life are going to keep making in-roads on everyone else's lives.

[supernova]

5. Because for many of them

it's all they will eat all day, junk food. No fresh fruit or veggies, no lean protein.

It's all this highly processed stuff filled with fat, sugar, and salt.

[SoCalDem]

6. except that kids were more active "back then" and Mom made real food

for them for breakfast & dinner..(not ALL kids, but probably most)

and cokes used to be 6 ounces..not 176 oz SuperHumongoGulps

and kids played hard after school...not crashed out on the couch playing video games or texting everyone they know..

We actually had to make our boys bathe before coming to the table..no sweaty stinky boys allowed at the dinner table in our house:)