You can now stop blaming McDonalds , Burger King and Dairy Queen for childhood obesity in the United States. A North Carolina study now says that it's the ‘Western diet' that makes America's kids fat, and not those supersized burgers and fries, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the study found that children who frequent fast food chains have a flawed "Western diet" that would make them obese even if they eliminated fast food meals from their diet.

The study team from the University of North Carolina pored over and analyzed information and profiles from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), a national database of Americans' health and nutrition behaviors. Studying data from 2007 to 2010, the team grouped 4,466 American kids aged 2-18 years old and determined what they ate when they were not eating fast food meals, notes IBN Live.

The results show that most participants were Western diet consumers, which means that their diet consists mainly of food high in saturated fats and sugars. Participants who consumed meals that had less saturated fat, less sugar, leaner proteins, fruits and vegetables were designated as "prudent diet" consumers.

After classifying the participants into two groups, the study team then categorized them in terms of fast food consumption, further grouping them into non-consumers, low consumers and high consumers of fast food.

The researchers found that participants on the Western diet but were non-consumers of fast food had the highest rate of being overweight and obese, as compared to those on the prudent diet who were high consumers of fast food.

Barry Popkin, lead author of the study, says, "This is really what is driving children's obesity; Eating fast foods is just one behavior that results from those bad habits. Just because children who eat more fast food are the most likely to become obese does not prove that calories from fast foods bear the brunt of the blame," according to Red Orbit.

For skeptic parents who may conclude that this study is biased against fast food chains, the study team clarified in a statement that their research has been funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and that they had no "financial conflicts of interest." The researchers instead emphasized that their study is significant for parents seeking to understand and remedy childhood obesity in the home.

One of the researchers, Jennifer Poti, stressed that "The study presented strong evidence that the children's diet beyond fast- food consumption is more strongly linked to poor nutrition and obesity. While reducing fast-food intake is important, the rest of a child's diet should not be overlooked."

With this new finding, parents should start stocking up on prudent diet foods in their fridge and cupboards.

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