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Monday, August 4, 2008
What do you think of the choices on kids’ menus?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We went out to eat last night with our 8-year-old twins, to a restaurant known for its local, sustainable food. Just the kind of place you’d expect lots of healthy food and fresh vegetables served within a couple of days of harvest, right?
Sure, if you’re ordering from the adult menu. The kids had already settled on one of the daily specials, a veggie pizza with eggplant, spinach, bell peppers and tomatoes, when the waiter sauntered over. We’ve got chicken fingers, fries and macaroni and cheese made with white cheese, not with cheese that’s been dyed orange, he said. They also offered soft drinks. We asked about milk. They had it, but only whole milk, which is high in fat and not recommended for children ages 2 and older.
I didn’t even know they had a children’s menu. I was disappointed to learn it was the same bland lineup of high-fat, high-calorie foods that are on almost every children’s menu, rather than something that would take advantage of the restaurant’s strengths. The kids got water they juiced up with lemon slices, shared most of the veggie pizza, nibbled on their aunt’s heirloom tomato salad and had a few bites of our pie, with house-cured salmon and avocado.
I’m not sure why I was surprised. We just don’t order from kids’ menus when we go out, because so many of them offer nothing but fat, sugar and starches. I might laugh about the idea of someone offering a macaroni and cheese plate with fries on the side for children, except I’ve seen it listed on too many menus.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest released a study today on children’s menus that probably won’t surprise many parents. Of the kids’ meals at 13 chains surveyed, 93 percent exceeded 430 calories. For a child ages 4 to 8, that’s one-third of their daily needs. A few meals exceeded 1,000 calories.
The report singled out KFC, Chick-fil-A, Taco Bell, Sonic, and Jack in the Box, which operates on the West Coast, as the chains most likely to offer kids’ meals that were too high in calories. (The links provided lead to nutrition information for those chains.)
Among the chains surveyed, some of the kids’ meals ranged from 830 to 1,020 calories. The group’s report notes that with many children eating these kinds of meals regularly, rather than as an occasional indulgence, the calories can pack on unneeded weight and lead to long-term health problems. (For a different take on the healthfulness of meals served at Chick-fil-A, check out dining critic Meridith Ford’s blog about a new book that gives it an “A”.)
Subway offered the healthiest choices, according to the study, with just a third of its kids’ meals exceeding 430 calories.
CSPI is using the study to argue for nutrition information on restaurant menus. That’s not likely to happen in Georgia, since legislators passed a bill earlier this year banning cities and counties from requiring restaurants to do this.
Still, you can find some nutritional information online for chain restaurants, and work out a healthier combination meal — extra crispy drumstick instead of popcorn chicken at KFC, mandarin oranges instead of cinnamon apples at Chili’s — before you go.
What do you think of the nutritional quality of children’s meals? If you eat out, how do you handle what your child orders? Are there menu combinations that are off limits for your kids? Do you check nutritional information at restaurants?
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