Popular Kids' Meals Contain Too Many Calories

Drew Dixon

Contributor

0 CommentsPrint ArticleSubscribe

More than 90 percent of kids' meals at popular fast-food restaurants contain far more than a meals worth of calories. In fact, the kids' meals also are loaded with too much fat and salt.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest found it difficult to find a kids' meal remotely healthy at a number of restaurant chains. In fact, "nearly every single possible combination of the children's meals at KFC, Taco Bell, Sonic, Jack in the Box and Chick-fil-A is too high in calories," the group said in a statement.

Researchers at the Baylor College of Medicine recommend that children should eat 1200-1400 calories per day. However, ninety-three percent of 1,474 possible choices at the 13 chains exceed 430 calories—an amount that is one-third of what the researchers recommend that children aged four through eight should consume in a day.

For more information on nutritional recommendations for children, check out the USDA/ARS Children's Nutrition Research Center at Baylor College of Medicine website at www.bcm.edu/cnrc/consumer/archives/percentDV.htm.

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons