Three in four American high school students said they did not eat breakfast every day in 2021, according to a survey released Thursday by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, marking a record for the biennial survey.
THE Youth Risk Behavior Survey for high school students across the country has been freed as part of the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
It revealed that ‘poor eating behaviors’ and lack of physical activity were either as bad or worse among high school students in 2021 compared to the 2019 survey, and in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. .
“These results are of particular concern because of the association between poor eating behaviors and insufficient physical activity and numerous chronic health conditions and poor mental health,” the authors wrote.
75% of teens surveyed in fall 2021 said they don’t eat breakfast every day, up from 66.9% in 2019. This marks a decade the decline in daily breakfast consumption among high school students.
While rates of teens who sometimes skip breakfast vary across demographic groups, no group analyzed by the agency had more than half of high school students sticking closely to this recommended meal.
More high school girls, 80.1%, said they don’t eat breakfast every day, compared to 69.9% for men.
Meanwhile, 83.8% of black teens surveyed said they don’t eat breakfast every day, compared to 61.9% of Asian teens.
Experts and health authorities have long urged parents to make sure their children eat breakfast every day. The American Academy of Pediatrics said research suggests that eating a daily breakfast can curb obesity, improve school performance, and reduce the risk of several health problems linked to poor eating habits in children.
The proportion of teenagers who do not consume fruits and vegetables at least once a day has also worsened.
47.1% of high school students surveyed said they did not eat fruit or drink fruit juice at least once a day, up from 41.8% in 2019. 45.3% did not eat their vegetables during less once a day, compared to 40.7% in 2019. .
Fruit and vegetable consumption rates varied by ethnicity among high school students, as in previous surveys. However, only two subgroups saw their daily consumption rates deteriorate for both fruits and vegetables: white male students and female students.
On the other hand, from 2017 to 2019, these two indicators were roughly flat among high school students in general.
American high school students also continue to fall short of physical activity benchmarks.
Only 23.9% of adolescents are physically active for at least one recommended time every day, according to the survey, as in 2019, while several other indicators deteriorated.
For example, the share of high school students taking physical education classes five school days a week dropped from 25.9% in 2019 to 19% in 2021.
“The prevalence of all five physical activity behaviors was less than 50%, and three of these behaviors decreased from 2019 to 2021. This observation was not surprising due to changes in school and extracurricular schedules for adolescents as a result of of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the study authors wrote.