The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has released the alarming news that about 93% of the 1,474 possible kiddie menu choices available at 13 of the most popular fast-food chains nationwide contain more than one-third the daily caloric recommendation for children between four and eight years of age. The CSPI is a strong advocate of including calorie count on menus in fast-food establishments and, while the number of calorie-counted menus grows, so does the opposition to the practice.

The CSPI investigation involved only chain restaurants that feature a separate menu dedicated to children’s meals. Of the top 25 such restaurant chains, 19 of them had dedicated kiddie menus. Of these 19, 13 of them had published nutritional information that was easy to access via company websites or elsewhere. It was these 13 restaurants under investigation as the CSPI researchers looked for the most nutritious kiddie meals containing 430 calories or less. Some findings:

• Of Chili’s 700 possible meals for children, 94% are too high in calories, including one that topped the chart at 1,020 calories.
• One of Burger King’s “Big Kids” meals contains 910 calories.
• Sonic’s “Wacky Pack” is an 830-calorie kiddie meal.
• KFC offers many side dishes but few true meal options, a situation that makes it difficult to track calories per meal. However, one of the chain’s “Laptop Meals” tops the caloric scale at 940 calories per meal.
• Of the children’s meals on menus at McDonald’s and Wendy’s, 93% of them are too high in calories to be a healthy menu choice for children. Other chains offered fewer poor choices, including Burger King (92% too high in calories), Dairy Queen (89%), Arby’s (69%), and Denny’s (60%).
• Subway’s children’s menu is the healthiest, with two-thirds of all items on the menu meeting healthful calorie counts for children.

In addition to being high in calories, 45% of all menus analyzed were too high in trans and saturated fats. There was too much sodium in 86% of the menus. A diet high in sodium and saturated and trans fats is linked to increased likelihood of developing high blood pressure and high low-density lipoproteins (LDL, or the “bad” form of cholesterol). The CSPI says 25% of all American children between age five and ten already exhibit these symptoms of heart disease.

Of the top 25 most popular chain restaurants in the country, Applebee’s, IHOP, Olive Garden, Outback Steakhouse, Red Lobster, and TGI Friday’s will not reveal the nutritional values of most of the items on their menus, even when requested to do so.

Source: CSPI