Studies show that kids’ household income seems to be a more important predictor of their risk of becoming overweight and obese than their race or ethnicity.
Raleigh News & Observer/MCT via Getty Images
As researchers have searched for ways to explain the childhood obesity epidemic in the U.S., many have posited that a child’s race or ethnicity alone can put them at greater risk of becoming overweight or obese.
Kim Eagle, a professor of internal medicine and health management and policy at the University of Michigan, was skeptical of this thinking. His hunch was that poverty was a much more important part of the equation.
<img src="http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2016/01/20/schoolsaladbar_sq-3f28c37a5c1ee42a43734bfab5acae971db73ba5-s100.jpg" class="img100" title="Students at Doherty Middle School in Andover, Mass., choose items from the salad bar…