U.S. Kids Eating Fewer Calories

In one of the first glimmers of hope in the fight against obesity, American children consumed fewer calories in 2010 than they did a decade earlier—but the obesity rate for children remained flat, a federal study released Thursday showed. The obesity rate for adults is slowly starting to decline, although researchers cautioned that the decrease is still marginal. It’s not more exercise in adults causing the receding waistlines—researchers said that energy intake hadn’t increased, but rather fast-food consumption is on the decline. Americans still consume about a third of their calories outside the home, and some demographic groups still get plenty of calories from fast food, with the highest being blacks between 20 to 39, who get a fifth of their calories from fast food.