More screen time was linked to fewer veggies. But only slightly.

Cohort study. 6,485 kids. 1 year (screen time at Year 2, 2018-2020; diet at Year 3, 2019-2021).

People were watched for years. Nobody was told what to do. A clue, not proof.

Who: US early adolescents in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study, mean age 12.0 (SD 0.7), 47.3% female, 21 US sites; analytic sample more often White and higher-income than those excluded

• Low fruit & veghigherodds, per hour
• Most added sugarhigherodds, per hour
• Web browsing, low veglowerodds, per hour

More to know, from our read of the paper:

• Observational: linked, not proven; authors say screen time and diet may influence each other both ways
• Effects are tiny: e.g. OR 1.06 per extra screen hour for being in the lowest fruit third; the authors call them 'consistently very small' (nearly all under 22% change in odds per hour). Say so
• Many outcomes (13 foods/nutrients) x 5 screen measures were tested; some single results (e.g. socializing and fruit, p = 0.049) are borderline. Stick to the consistent total-screen-time pattern
• Screen time self-reported by kids (survey not formally validated); diet reported by parents on a 41-item food screener (Block Kids Food Screener) and reviewed by the child
• Heavy exclusions: 4,310 excluded for reporting under 500 kcal/day and 937 for missing calorie data; analysed kids were more often White and higher-income, which limits generalisability

Researchers followed 6,485 US kids, about 12 years old, from the ABCD Study for one year. Kids reported their screen hours; parents reported what they ate, and kids checked the answers. Each extra hour of screen time was linked to slightly higher odds of eating the fewest fruits and vegetables, and the most added sugar, a year later. Browsing the web went the other way. The authors call the effects very small, and it's observational: linked, not proven.

We read the abstract and the full text of this paper and checked every number on this page against it (16 facts, checked on 2026-10-29). The study design is named above. Cohort and other observational studies are described as linked, not proven. Found an error? Email theis@onestudyaday.com.