At home, children are bombarded with junk-food advertising on TV. At school, they're surrounded by cheap, unhealthy choices like sugar-sweetened soda in lunchrooms and vending machines. Together, these factors contribute to what has been referred to as the "toxic food environment," which many child obesity researchers say is a key hurdle to getting kids to eat right and exercise.

In the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) current Children's Food Environment State Indicator Report [PDF], the agency takes a state-by-state look at three major food environments for American kids: child care, school and the community. Based on certain measures of the health of these settings — for instance, whether state regulations require restriction of sugary drinks and access to drinking water in day-care centers — the report gives a general sense of the state of American kids' larger food environment.

It's not good. Overall, only two states (Georgia and Nevada) have regulations to restrict sugary drinks in child-care centers; about half require access to drinking water throughout the day; and 18 specifically limit TV-watching time.

It doesn't get much better by the time kids get to school age: the report finds that 64% of U.S. middle and high schools allow sodas and other sugar-laden drinks to be sold on campus; 51% stock vending machines with chips, cookies, cakes and other unhealthy snacks; and 49% allow junk-food advertising at school.

It's no wonder, then, that a recent study in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association found that 40% of the calories that children and teens consume in a day come from fat and sugar, with a large portion coming directly from sugar-sweetened beverages like soda and fruit drinks.

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