Study: The poor don't eat more fast food than everyone else

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last updated 22 September 2015

American children consume fast food at remarkably similar rates across class levels, according to new data released by the Centers for Disease Control. In fact, children at roughly the middle of the income distribution and above consume slightly more than those at the bottom. The survey of 5,000 people found that children at less than 130 percent of the poverty level get 11.5 percent of their calories from fast food, while those above 350 percent got 13 percent.

It's certainly possible that these percentages of caloric intake would go down for the truly upper class. (Median household income in the U.S. is around 400 percent of the poverty level.) But the fact that the over 350 percent crowd got more calories from fast food is striking — as Roberto Ferdman noted at the Washington Post, there's a common assumption that economic necessity drives poorer families to rely more heavily on fast food because it's cheap and convenient.