There’s an informative article at WebMD that examines a study of 13 fast food restaurant chains and how healthy – or unhealthy – their kids meals are. It should come as no surprise that they got a failing grade.
Ninety-three percent of the choices had too many calories. While that’s high, I found it a little surprising to see that less than half (45 percent) had too much saturated fat. I just figured that would be much higher.
The article categorizes the worst and best choices you can make for your kids at some of the establishments they studied. Those you should avoid include Chili’s, KFC, Sonic and Burger King. Those with healthier selections include Subway, Denny’s and Arby’s.
The fast food industry disputes the claims of the study, but it seems they aren’t hearing what is being said. The claim is that most choices are unhealthy. But they dispute by saying that they have healthy choices. Right, but most aren’t.
Some blame has to go to consumers who make poor choices. But let’s be honest. If you’re in Burger King, and you smell the grilled beef and fries, it’s mighty tempting to skip the dainty salad that’s buried beneath all the other fatty sodium-filled choices.
And it’s not as if they try hard to make the healthy options tasty and appealing. The McD’s salads have been nasty for ages. How hard is it to have crisp, appealing garden salad elements and a decent packaged dressing? I wonder if they purposely make the “diet” items crap so you buy the crap items that maybe make them more moolah….
We don’t go to McD’s or Burger King or KFC anymore. Our local KFC stopped doing the Tender Roast and we can do without the fried chicken. When we do fast food out of necessity or cause I’m too pooped to cook, we do Subway or Wendy’s, cause we can get veggies and lower calorie-items that taste decent. The last time we went to McD’s about, mmmm….9 months ago..it was cause we had a craving for ice cream cones, and their low-fat soft serve cones are quite pleasant on a warm Miami evening.
If KFC paid more attention to healthier chicken and sides, we’d go there. Until then, we get our take-out chicken (when I don’t cook) at Boston Market, which now has a zucchini marinara I like for a side, along with my usual green beans. (And they’ve added huge chopped salads that two people can easily split).
If we had kids, I’d want to keep them out of McD’s, Burger King, KFC, and their ilk.. I don’t want them to hooked on junk food like I used to be in my younger, stupider days.
the Princess
You know I was recently reading a ahort blog from my Boyfriend’s daughter (who is presently overweight) and she was answering questions about her daily life. One question really got to me, she said for lunch every day she has Chic fila – and I’m so sure it’s a salad…right, but I’m sure she has the option. They have put this food choice in her school cafeteria right in her face and the faces of other young adults. We have tried to get through to her about the way she eats, but if you are not following these kids around and watching them at school – what they learn to be socially acceptable is not always the healthiest, but what can you do? I agree with you, sometimes you can’t always cook, and choosing healthier alternatives IS best. I just wish there were some kind of buzzer we could attach to the kids to make them realize what we know now.
Have a Good Day!
Christina