COLUMBUS, Ohio, March 1 (UPI) -- Many are critical of U.S. schools having unhealthy lunches and too little physical education, but children gain more weight during summer vacation.
A nationwide study by Ohio State University researchers found that one measure of obesity rose more than twice as fast when kindergarten and first-grade students were on summer vacation than when they were in school.
The researchers also say that obese children were helped most by being in school: They gained weight no faster than other children did during the school year. It was only during the summer that overweight children gained weight more quickly than average.
"We really can't blame schools for the rise in childhood obesity," said study co-author Paul von Hippel of OSU. "The problem is primarily outside of schools."
The study appears in the April issue of the American Journal of Public Health.
