Unless your kid is named Hansel, he probably doesn’t need to be fattened up like a juicy Christmas goose every time you go out to eat. That’s not what some of the biggest restaurants think, though: Chili’s has a kids’ meal that comes in at 1,020 calories, while Burger King and KFC both offer meals that are over 900 calories. Your healthiest option, says the Center for Science in the Public Interest, is Subway. Here are what some other restaurants are offering, as well as tips on how to make the best of a bad meal when your kid is eating out.
For children between 4 and 8 years of age, the recommended amount of calories per meal, assuming three meals a day, is 430. If the child is active, the amount goes up to 565. Using these numbers as a guide, the CSPI looked at the biggest restaurant chains in the country, then whittled their list down to the ones that offer dedicated kids’ menus and provide nutritional info. This meant the following were left out of the study because they won’t provide nutritional info:
- We don’t need no stinkin’ nutrition
- Applebee’s
- T.G.I. Friday’s
- Outback Steakhouse
- Olive Garden
- Red Lobster
- IHOP
Here’s what the CSPI has to say about those restaurants that do provide nutritional info:
Chili’s has 700 possible kids’ meal combinations, but 658, or 94 percent, of those are too high in calories, including one comprised of country-fried chicken crispers, cinnamon apples, and chocolate milk (1,020 calories) and another comprised of cheese pizza, homestyle fries, and lemonade (1,000 calories).
Burger King has a “Big Kids” meal with a double cheeseburger, fries, and chocolate milk (910 calories)
Sonic has a “Wacky Pack” with 830 calories worth of grilled cheese, fries, and a slushie.
KFC has a wide variety of side items, but there are few meal combinations that keep a reasonable ceiling on calories, according to the study. One example of a high-cal combo KFC kid’s meal (the chain calls them “Laptop Meals”) has popcorn chicken, baked beans, biscuit, Teddy Grahams, and fruit punch, which has 940 calories. (KFC has since dropped Baked Cheetos from its kids’ meals, and some outlets vary the number of chicken strips or sides.)
Most of the kids’meals (93 percent) at McDonald’s and Wendy’s are too high in calories, as are the possibilities at Burger King (92 percent), Dairy Queen (89 percent), Arby’s (69 percent), and Denny’s (60 percent-though its kids’ meals don’t include drinks). (Since CSPI’s study was completed, Burger King has introduced one new children’s meal with macaroni and cheese, apple “fries,” and 1 percent milk, which has a reasonable 420 calories.)
Subway’s kids’ meals came out on top. Only a third of its Fresh Fit for Kids meals, which include a mini-sub, juice box, and one of several healthful side items (apple slices, raisins, or yogurt), exceed the 430-calorie threshold. Subway is the only chain that doesn’t offer soft drinks with kids’ meals.
So how do you improve the nutrition of your kid’s meal the next time you eat at a restaurant? A spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association gave the following advice:
“Don’t be too alarmed even when [studies] come out and seem hopeless,” said Dawn Jackson Blatner, an American Dietetic Ass>ociation spokeswoman. “With a few swaps and switches, people really can make healthier choices at these fast-food joints, especially when the decisions are made before going in.
“Many of these restaurants have the nutrition information online that you can print out and go over with your kids even before you go, so that everybody is on the same page before they pull up to the drive-through or [head] to the counter,” Blatner said.
She also suggested that “instead of getting the fries, go with the apple slices. Many [restaurants] offer carrot sticks or apple slices or no-sugar-added applesauce or oranges, which make a big difference over deep-fried fries.”
And pay attention to how food is cooked. “Instead of the deep-fried nuggets, go for something like the grilled chicken, and you will save fat grams and calories,” Blatner said. You’ll also save calories by switching the soda, she added: “You can’t go wrong with unsweetened iced tea, water or a skim milk.”
As for the restaurants that refuse to provide nutritional info, maybe you should just eat elsewhere.
Click here for some specific replacement suggestions from the Chicago Tribune.
You can download a copy of the full CSPI report here.
(Photo: Getty)
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@snoop-blog: If we want to be fat, then let us.
Sounds great to me! I assume though you will pay out of pocket (rather than drive up insurance rates or take tax payer money) for any medical expenses that result from your large gluteus maximus.
Yes, we all need to be responsible for what we shovel into our mouths. And while I love to cook, I don’t always get to do so every single day. Having nutritional info available for these restaurants – regardless of how fatty common sense tells you the food probably is – is good to have. I just don’t get the constant arms-folding and head-shaking that I see in comments about these types of posts. We get it, fast food is not healthy, and you cook all the time and either never eat at places like these or do so very seldom, and your children would never be allowed to touch a french fry, but that doesn’t eliminate the need for nutritional info. If it did, then we might as well remove it from packaged foods we get at the supermarket, too. I mean, come on, everyone knows bread has a lot of carbs, what’s the need to have it on the package?
@Tmoney02: No I have health insurance, so thanks everyone!! Me luvs u much!
@snoop-blog: it’s funny how you characterize good food as “nasty” – hell, i think most of us do; we’ve just been trained that way.
the thing is, i had a few friends growing up that had parents on the granola kick way before it was a fad. while my treats were fries, soda & burgers, theirs were fruits & veggies. they never thought of good food as nasty – never pushed away broccoli b/c it was green.
today, their lifestyle is much healthier than mine – they eat healthy, workout, etc. i’m not obese, but i don’t even want to know what my blood pressure is these days. & while i’ve grown to like things i used to think were nasty, it’s really difficult to fundamentally change your lifestyle as an adult.
my point is, teach kids to eat healthy young & they’ll realize what’s really nasty – assembly-line food chock full of “taste-enhancers” & other horrid chemicals.
@incognit000: Same with me. My parents very rarely took me out to eat. My mother took the time to cook nice meals.
@mac-phisto: Different folks different strokes. You can’t program taste buds. Plus 10 years ago, it was a lot more expensive to eat healthy and we grew up poor.
Here’s the deal. When I was a kid, I was active. I had the computer, NES, etc, and I played them a TON, but I was also outside playing probably 5-6 hours a day (depending on weather). Hell, on any given day I probably burned 5,000-6,000 calories. So take that “mass media” trying to state restaurants are making our kids fat. How about PE being removed from schools and lack of activities for kids?
@Saboth: Word. I had all the games systems, and played the crap out of them, but I also had a bike, skateboard, rollerblades etc, and played the crap out of those to. I’ve never been overweight, nor have I ever dieted. I think genetics plays the biggest part.
@Saboth: I was the same way. I had an Atari (ahem), later an NES, and I also loved to read – both sedentary activities. But I also played outside a lot. I was lucky to be in a neighborhood where we could be allowed to roam around and play, and also lucky in that obesity doesn’t run in my family. But I was able to eat both my family’s healthy home cooking *and* also have some of the not-so-hot for-you stuff because I was encouraged to be active at home. And at school we had PE and played games at recess. I think that has to be factored in to the situation of childhood obesity today.
Am I the only one who is surprised at how low the number of calories are? Maybe I’m wrong, but isn’t the daily diet of calories expected to be 2000 and possibly more for active kids?
If they’re eating 1000 calories in one meal, and you have two to three meals a day, isn’t that just right? Especially if it’s dinner, which is generally when I would be going out to eat.
@HPCommando: “Recall that they “conclusively proved” garlic, pasta and wine killed everyone on earth faster than any other combinations of food?”
Got a source for that?
I appreciate hearing from the CSPI. There’s certainly enough disinformation out there from the other side.
All you industry flacks, if childhood obesity is a sign of bad, weak, lazy parenting, then there’s hardly a fit parent in this country (except for each of you, I’m sure, whose kids are perfect). Some parents may be winning the fight against our toxic food environment, but there’s no reason why it should have to be such a struggle.
@lidor7:
Whoops, missed the bit in the article that says kids 4-8 should only have about 500 calories. I suppose that’s the age group that these meals are aimed at.
Riddle me this Batman. Why does a double patty melt, M fries, and M Coke have to have 1750 calories and 95 grams of fat @ Whataburger?!! This is the kind of food that these kids will grow up eating. It’s a crying shame. It’s also a shame how so many of you have the mentality that no one is forcing you to eat it. That’s not the real issue, the real issue is much deeper than that.
“Which restaurants are making your kids fat?”
All of them.
Pretty much most restaurants with a deep fryer make that list.
@jimv2000:
Exactly
There is not 1 I can think of that isnt a bunch of unhealthy over-big garbage.
I vow when I have kids, Micky Ds and similar “food” are off the menu.
@Tmoney02: it’s disgusting how FAT america is.
The moral of the study is: if you’re going to take your kids to a fast food restaurant, you shouldn’t let them eat anything.
Simple enough.
@snoop-blog: well, i guess we’ll have to agree to disagree. i happen to think you can program tastebuds & that eating healthy is at least as cheap as eating fast & in many cases cheaper.
@RamV10: you and me both, we learned at a very early age never to say “I’m bored” to my parents or grandparents, they would find us something to do that we probably wouldn’t like.
I also agree the parents feeding the kids that stuff is making them fat. When I take my 5 year old grandson to McDonalds once a week, he gets the 4 piece nugget Happy Meal with apple dippers instead of fries (oddly he doesn’t really like fries) that fills him up. He is exactly the right weight for his height, mainly because we make sure he has outside activity everyday. We go to a lot of parks
@screwtapeletters: exactly
Oh geeze. If you’re worried about your kids being healthy, you wouldn’t be taking them out for fast food now would you? Good lord, one kids meal isn’t going to kill your kid.
My Hansel will be sorely disappointed when I tell him that he can’t eat some of his favorites (chicken nuggets are his absolute favorite), although he is slim and trim and very active for an 8-year old.
I think bad parenting is making your kids fat. But that’s just common sense talking. It’s really up to you.
Ah, the fate of humankind, rapidly becoming the model seen in Wall-E.
Yes, you can. Water is OK, but the other two? Ew.
I’m with everyone else: it’s parenting. HFCS and flavor enhancers don’t help (they make you want to eat more, too, you see…), but that is still controlled by the parents.
Now please excuse me while I wait to go home and eat a big bowl of gumbo over curry rice (from scratch, and the gumbo lasts forever in the fridge). MMmmm, fat and carbs.
Ok. I am gonna pile on the hate for this study. Oh yeah, who does not know that the kid’s meals are full of calories, fat, salt and sugar?
We have to thank the study and the media for pointing this out?
You know, if your kid is thin and active or muscular– maybe even husky; eating a regular kid’s meal of a cheeseburger, small fries and a soda one or twice a week is not gonna make him a tubbo.
Start feeding that stuff daily, or not giving them better choices at home, and sure a child is going to be obese.
My problem with this study is that it lays the blame on those ‘mean’ fast food restaurants and not the parents themselves. Any parent who cares remotely about a child’s health is gonna watch thse things; even without calorie intakes mentioned next to the prices. It’s the people who say ‘yes’ to their 5 year old getting a quarter pounder with cheese that are issue. It’s the people who are ‘too busy’, or self-absorbed that can not make these choices for their children.
I say we should get rid of the drinking age and enforce 18+ ID at fast food restaurants…
Hopefully this would abate the rash of fat, drunk sorority girls puking in the middle of the street in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of my city of Washington every weekend night.
Since people always split up their caloric intake equally between three meals every day, and always eat exactly their needed caloric intake every day…..
As someone who’s struggled with weight control my whole life, I can in hindsight see that a lot of the problem stemmed from my upbringing and the “clean your plate” mentality that was instilled in me. It’s gratifying to me to watch my young daughter stop eating when she’s full, no matter what food she’s given. Unlike many (most?) parents, including my own, I don’t make her keep eating when she wants to stop. Not that I’d do it, but I could get her a 4,000 calorie banana split, and she’d still only eat a tiny part of it. In other words, as long as you’re giving kids meals that have balanced nutrition, just trust in them to eat the calories they need and leave what they don’t. Don’t make food a reward. Don’t make them finish everything on their plates, and don’t force them to eat their main meal just to get some dessert. Overeating is a learned behavior, so don’t teach it!
@csdiego: Of course. But its simpler to see the full extent of CSPI’s inanity.
Simply Google “CSPI Food”. Try “Italian” or “Chinese” to start; when looking at the CSPI cover-up of their highly erroneous studies, note the backdating that they do compared to the dates reported by those covering the CSPI errors.
Better yet, use Google to find the “burger baptism” story from an employee.
Find a crazy person to fund other crazy people to promote a crazy idea, its still a crazy idea. The problem is how many people get hurt following the crazies.
One can get more intellectual stimulation from debating the merits of WATCHTOWER Magazine with Jehovah’s Witnesses than believing in CSPI propaganda.
—
@Tmoney02: “Few kids”. On the other hand, this one looks to be gesturing for Mom and Pop to use the ramrod to pack in and make room for the half a cow for the after dinner snack. Or perhaps his bones are hollow.
If you stop giving your children pop and force them to drink better stuff they’ll probably drop some of that extra weight. Even on a McDonalds diet you can eat a Big Mac for 3 meals a day as long as you accompany it with water. When I stopped drinking pop all together I dropped 20 pounds in 3 months.
Big mac calories 540
Large coke calories 340
Which Restaurants Are Making Your Kids Fat?
The one’s you take your kids to.
So that means that it’s still morally acceptable to eat Kraft Dinners’ Macaroni and Cheese.
Technically, unless you go to a restaurant that only serves fruits and vegetables… it makes your kid fat. Every restaurant pumps their food full of salt, sugar, and fats that are not necessary. It’s amazing how much food and how bad of food it takes to make a kid fat. What’s even more amazing is that people can afford to feed their kids enough to make them fat.
fast food tastes good cause its fatty unhealty and fast..duh lol….so hey if your kids are getting fat off of slated lard rings, then dont take em there…..change the channel if you dont like what ur hearing instead of complaining. I love whiners! they whine and whine with fries hangin out of their mouth……all i know is their social security, whats left of it will be mine! bwahahaha
@armour: It’s also parents’ fault by insisting that children do organized activities (which means they stand around most of the time) instead of just playing running-oriented playground games and pickup sports.
I might be showing my lack of age (I’m only 38), but there were tons of fast food places around when I was a child and teen.
Guess what? When I was training for football and gobbling food like Rush Limbaugh gobbles pills, I didn’t gain weight.
When I ran around with my friends playing endless games of tag and the like, I didn’t gain weight.
When I got hurt, I gained weight because of lack of exercise.
Oh, and the video game system (Atari 2600) was only for when the weather was too cold to play outside.
@mrgenius: You really think they could shut down the Jumbo Slice joints? Heresy!
(I couldn’t eat one of those things after a night of debauchery – I had to split it!)
@michaelleung: Replace the water with chicken broth, and make in the microwave. Add fresh ground black pepper to taste. Otherwise make it the same as always.
Alternately, use beef broth, otherwise make it the same way as always, then mix in no-bean chili for a killer chili mac. You can use regular chili, but…
If interested, try using garlic powder instead of salt, or no salt at all, watch your blood pressure and cholesterol count drop.
Likewise, if your blood sugar is high, add a teaspoon of horseradish per day; if it works, you’ll see results in ten days.
I love it when conflicting reports come out just days after each other.
I was just reading the other day that the nugget kids meal at McDs was one of the best fast food options not just for kids but adults to (the same one slammed KFC while this one looks like its saying its ok). At 300 some calories I’d think the nugget meal would be ok. Maybe thats what the 6% is though.
Which restaurants are making our kids fat? Trick question, right? The answer is: not a single one. Not a single restaurant is making our kids fat.
The minute I hear a story about McDonald’s kidnapping and force feeding children is the minute I’ll believe a headline like the one for this post.
Consumerist really needs to stop promoting the idea that restaurants are to blame for our eating habits.
You really can’t blame the restaurants, for your ill health. Gone are the days of good, wholesome foods, served by a waitress with a friendly smile.
Parents should not subject their children to “eating out”, especially fast food crap, except when nothing else is available.
And those who voluntarily eat highly-sweetened and fatty (vegetable oils) foodstuffs at restaurants and fast-food joints have only themselves to blame for their pudgy, stodgy, slow bodies.
People are mistreating their children, when they refuse to feed them correctly (or are ignorant about nutrition) and they allow them to sit on their butts most of the day.
Yah, title should read ‘Stupid parents make stupid kids stupid fat!’