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Over one-third of American children eat fast food every day, CDC data show

A large number of health issues in the U.S., including cancer, heart disease and obesity, are linked to unhealthy lifestyles and behaviors, according to the National Institute of Health.

Some of those behaviors include eating fast or processed foods, which may kill more people prematurely than smoking cigarettes, NIH said.

Between 2015 and 2018, over a third of American kids and teens ate fast food on a given day, a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found. About 36% of children and adolescents between ages 2 and 19 ate fast food every day, according to the CDC.

The CDC reported 11.4% of kids in that age group got more than 45% of their daily caloric intake from fast food, 13.8% got 25% to 45% from fast food and 11.1% got less than 25% of their daily calories from fast food. On average, 13.8% of their daily calories came from fast food between 2015 and 2018, which is an increase from 12.4% from 2011 to 2012, according to NBC.

The amount of calories kids and teens got from fast food varied based on their age, sex, race and Hispanic origin, the CDC found. While there was no variation in the amount of fast food eaten by sex among kids 2 to 11 years old, girls aged 12 to 19 had a higher daily intake (18.5%) than boys in the same age group (14.9%), according to the CDC.

The amount of calories from fast food increased as kids got older. Kids 2 to 11 had an average caloric intake from fast food of 11.4%, while those aged 12 to 19 consumed an average of 16.7% of calories from fast food each day, the CDC found.

Non-Hispanic white kids and teens between ages 2 and 19 ate significantly less calories from fast food (12.9%) than non-Hispanic Black (16.9%) and Hispanic (14.8%) kids and teens in the same age group, according to the CDC. There was no significant difference between Hispanic and non-Hispanic Black kids and teens.

The average amount of calories from fast food that kids ate decreased from 14.1% in 2003 and 2004 to 13.1% in 2009 and 2010, the CDC found. But the amount increased to 14.4% in 2017 and 2018, according to the CDC.