Skip to main content

Children's menu makes you fat

If you do not want your child to get fatter, keep him/her away from the kid's menu, says a consumer report.

As restaurants try to cater for the changing needs of health conscious adults, most of them have completely ignored the child. This is according to a report from the Center for Science in the Public Interest (USA).

Go to most restaurants today and you will see children's menus loaded with fast carbohydrates, saturated fats and additives.

In this report 20 chains of restaurants were examined. The researchers took meals from seven of them to an independent laboratory. They asked the laboratory to test the meals for their nutritional content.

Dishes that contained fries had over 65% of a child's recommended daily intake of fats.



Jane Hurley, co-author of the report said "Kids' menus have just been fast food for years and years. It's cheap for the restaurants, but the cost for kids is measured in obesity and related diseases."

Some chains responded by saying that parents can, if they want, change items on the menu. One said that the fries could be replaced with broccoli.

I was in the USA last year and was surprised by the amount of fast carbohydrates in the children's menus. So called 'healthy options' consisted mostly of carbohydrates, and high GI (glycemic index) ones at that. I live in the UK.

In the USA my children had the choice of 'healthy' meals with lots of fast carbs, or plain junk foods. When going to France, on the other hand, children just eat what the adults do. If there are French fries on the dish, the portion is quite small, there are always plenty of vegetables and fruit for desert. Basically, the French meals are balanced with the right proportions of protein, carbohydrates and fats.

The UK and USA are obsessed with the amount of fats in their foods. The continental European focus on the balance of protein, vegetables, salad and fruit. The USA/UK think that if you do not eat fat you are OK. It is not the fats that cause insulin to rocket, it is loading yourself with carbohydrates. It is not fat itself that is bad, it is saturated fat that is bad.

I took my son (he is 10) and a friend to the zoo the other day here in England. The healthy option in the kids' meal was 'maccaroni cheese' with banana for desert. The portion was massive, the cheese was obviously super processed and had very little protein. Basically, had my son and his friend opted for the 'healthy menu he would have had a 80% carbohydrate meal. The ideal should be 40% carbs (slow release), 30% protein and 30% fat (monounsaturated).

When we were last in France I remember my son opting for fish soup, a cesar's salad and some plums. The soup was delicious with plenty of fish in it, the salad plentiful with lots of olive oil and the plums were sweet and fresh. That meal had plenty of fat, but it was olive oil (unsaturated). He had plenty of fiber (fibre) and a good dose of protein. He asked for mineral water to drink.

I asked him why he opted for the mineral water, not his usual fizzy lemonade. 'Everyone has water here,' he answered.

So what should we concentrate on? Cutting out fat or balancing the meal?

Written by Christian Nordqvist, Editor of Medical News Today.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Is too much soy bad for men?

While soy may be beneficial to women in a variety of ways, research in monkeys suggests that it could have an adverse effect on the behavior of men, according to researchers from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. Reporting in the current issue of the scientific journal Hormones and Behavior, the researchers found that in male monkeys, "long-term consumption of a diet rich in soy isoflavones can have marked influences on patterns of aggression and social behavior." Isoflavones are a naturally occurring plant estrogen in soy protein. "Although considerable attention has been directed at the potentially beneficial effects of isoflavones in reducing the risk of various cancers, osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease and postmenopausal symptoms, less effort has been invested in characterizing neurobehavioral effects," according to the study.

Dietary modification could be a simple way to reduce the risk of stroke

Dietary modification could be a simple way to reduce the risk of stroke say researchers. The research shows a diet that consists of meats, refined grains and desserts is associated with a greater risk for stroke than a diet of fruits, vegetables, fish, legumes and whole grains. The study included dietary information on 71,768 female nurses between 38 and 63 years old. The women had no history of heart disease or diabetes. They completed questionnaires about their diet every few years for 14 years. Researchers tracked how many of the women had a stroke and then compared their diets. They rated the women's diets based on if they ate more of a Western diet or a prudent diet. During the follow-up, 791 women in the study had had a stroke. It was found that women who ate a Western diet vs. a prudent diet had a higher risk of developing a stroke . They say those who had the highest scores for a Western diet, meaning they mainly ate meat, refined grains and sweets, had a more than 50

Patient wins right to stop doctors withdrawing food and drink when he can no longer speak

Leslie Burke, who has a degenerative brain condition (cerebellar ataxia), was concerned that doctors may one day withdraw food and drink when he could no longer speak. He has won a high court ruling which says the doctors cannot do that. Leslie wants to go on living for as long as he can, even when he loses his ability to communicate his wishes to people around him. According to UK General Medical Council guidance on providing artificial nutrition, Leslie thought there might be situations in which life saving food and drink could be withdrawn, even if this went against his wishes. If his situation got so that he could not speak, the present guidance could allow doctors to remove food and drink. Now the General Medical Council will have to re-write the guidance as a result of the new High Court ruling. This new ruling applies to all terminally ill patients and also patients who lose the ability to speak and communicate their wishes to doctors. The General Medical Council can appea