Childhood obesity: Is there something amiss with food processing (original) (raw)

Abstract

In this paper, we estimate the impact of processed foods—characterized by energy density and the amount of unidentified residuals in the food including food additives —on children's weight. We find that there is a direct correlation between the increase of energy density and residuals in children's dietary intake and their weight and body mass index (BMI) as well as their chance of becoming overweight. We also find that the impact of processed foods is asymmetric across the distribution of BMI; overweight children are more susceptible to the impact of processed foods than normal-weight children. Our estimates are robust to unobservable family characteristics, potential omitted variables, simultaneity, and measurement errors. Our findings suggest that the changed characteristics of processed foods are partly responsible for the increase in childhood obesity. Policies that reduce the amount of additives and energy density may be considered.

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