Kids, stay away from fried foods and soda

Thirteen big-name fast-food restaurant chains offer at least 1,474 possible food choices for kids’ meals, which means there is a wide variety for kids to choose from; however, at least 93 percent of these exceed the recommended calorie content in a single meal.

This startling finding was released by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a health-oriented advocacy group. In terms of nutritional quality, the group says there are very few meals in fast-food restaurants that are good for kids. The vast majority of kids’ meals contain too much calories, fat (saturated and trans), or sodium.

The CSPI executive director says these meals definitely are not the kind that parents should be encouraging their kids to eat.

The CSPI researchers took a set of nutritional standards recommended by national nutrition groups for children. The Institute of Medicine established a cutoff consumption of 1,300 calories a day for the average, moderately active, 4- to 8-year-old child.

Assuming a child has 3 meals a day, this works out to a maximum of 430 calories for each meal. In addition, total fat content should not exceed 35 percent of calories, with a further limitation of saturated (animal) fat and trans fat to no higher than 10 percent of calories. Cutoff levels for added sugars and sodium were also determined.

They then evaluated the calorie contents in the 1,474 possible combinations of kids’ meals served at 13 chain restaurants. Nutrition information was obtained from the restaurant companies’ websites and their corporate offices.

The researchers found that 93 percent of the 1,474 meal options had in excess of 430 calories; in many instances, the calorie content was at least two times the recommended level. The saturated and trans fat content in 45 per cent of the options was substantially higher than the cutoff, and 86 percent of them had too much sodium content.

Spokesmen from the individual food chains and from the restaurant industry disagreed, saying their menus offer more nutritionally healthy options now than in previous years.

CSPI says parents need to guide their children in their meal selections. They should remember that while heart attacks do not usually occur until people are in their 50s or so, arteries begin to get clogged in childhood. Meals such as these would put American children on the fast track to obesity, diabetes and heart problems.

A market research firm estimates that the average American child (under 18 years) consumes 167 restaurant meals a year. This underscores the need to be more careful about meal choices.

Safety Tips:

* Stay away from fried foods; go for grilled or baked items.

* Avoid soda; choose 100% fruit juice, or low-fat or skim milk. Soda is all calories with no nutritional value.