Most Restaurants Dishing Out Kids Meals High in Calories, Fats & Sodium

The fast-food restaurants, no doubt, have modified their menus over the past few years to include healthy foods, but some of the most popular restaurant chains are still offering too much fat, calories and sodium packed in kids meals, a report from the Center for Science in the Public Interest revealed Monday.

CSPI, whose aim is to provide useful, objective information to the public and policymakers and to conduct research on food, alcohol, health, the environment, and other issues related to science and technology, asserts that nearly every possible combination of the children's meals at some of the most popular restaurant chains are too fattening, delivering more than a quick lunch or dinner.

The report states that 90 percent of kids' meals have far more than a meal's worth of calories and many are loaded with fat and salt too.

According to the US watchdog group, 93% of 1,474 possible choices for kids' meals at the nation's top 13 fast-food chains surpass the count of 430 calories, which is a quarter of the daily calorie intake recommended by the Institute of Medicine for the average eight-year-old children.

Additionally, 45 percent of the kids' meals at the 13 chains are too high in saturated and trans fats, and 86% are too high in sodium, the CSPI report states.

CSPI prepared its report after examining the menus at 13 popular restaurants that promote children's meals, including Taco Bell, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Taco Bell, which are both owned by Yum Brands Inc., Wendy's, Jack in the Box and Chili's Grill and Bar, which is owned by Brinker International Inc.

"When you go to most chain restaurants, ordering off the kids' menu is a nightmare," says Margo Wootan, nutrition policy director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI).

"Right now kids' meals are almost all unhealthy meals when they should be almost all healthy meals," she says "At the very least, restaurants should list calories on the menu so that parents can navigate through this minefield of calories and fat to find the healthy options."

Keith Ayoob, who works with overweight kids at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, called the CSPI report, titled as "Kids' Meals: Obesity on the Menu," a wakeup call. "Eating out is no longer a special occasion, it's a lifestyle now, so we have to be more selective about what we eat."

"This is a wakeup call that parents need to take advantage of restaurants' healthier options, especially if kids are going to be eating out three or more times a week. Most kids don't clean their plates so they are probably not eating all these calories," he says.

Kids' menus mostly include burgers, chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese, french fries and soft drinks that are high in calories.

In the CSPI report, Michael Jacobson, the non-profit group’s executive director concluded that they are very sad to see that food chains are still serving fried chicken, hamburgers, french fries, grilled cheese sandwiches and soda to the kids. This food stuff, as well all very well know, is generally high in calories, fats and salts which can be harmful for kids.

Jacobson added that they hope the report will encourage restaurants to start offering healthier options for children and more information to parents in the form of calorie counts on the menus.