Having access to junk food at school did not cause middle schoolers to gain weight, according to a longitudinal study.  Data from a nearly 20,000-student study showed that in the 1998-1999 school year, 59.2 percent of fifth graders and 86.3 percent of eighth graders in the U.S. attended schools that sold junk food, Jennifer Van Hook, PhD, and doctoral candidate Claire Altman, of Pennsylvania State University in University Park, found.  Eight years later, although there was a significant increase in the percentage of students attending schools that sold junk food, there was no corresponding rise in the percentage of students who were overweight or obese, they reported in Sociology of Education.

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