Children and Fast Food

Child Eating a Veggie Burger, Wikimedia.org,r_kellyhogaboom.jpg

Do you live a fast pace life? Do you take time to cook a nutritional meal? Have you given much thought about children and fast food? Do you find yourself feeding yourself and your family fast food the majority of the time? Fast food may not be healthy for your children.





You may not be able to cook all of the time for your children, but are you finding yourself buying more fast food than you would like too? There may be occasions when you do eat fast food, but when you do make smart nutritional choices. Have you considered your children and fast food? Are you able to make fast food healthier choices? Some fast food restaurants do offer healthy choices. Why not start looking at the nutritional value of what you eat? You may want to look at getting salads instead of French fries. Possibly you will choose grilled meat as opposed to fried foods. I love YaYa’s grilled chicken salads. In addition, are you aware that Wendy’s medium fries have 420 calories with 21 grams of fat, but a garden salad is 210 calories and 13 grams of fat? Therefore, you want to always weigh the nutritional values for healthier choices. I love Wendy’s salads too. They are just awesome.


If you start your children eating healthy, it will become a lifestyle for them.
A study done of 41 Top Chain Restaurants showed that 9 out of the top chain, including McDonald’s did not have a single kid’s meal that meet the Restaurant Industry healthy food standards. However, Subway and Outback are making kids menu healthier. Can restaurants make healthier menus? I would say, yes, they could offer more choices.

Fast food can be bad for kids. But how bad?



Asthma

Does your child have Asthma? Did you know there is a link to fast food and severe asthma in children? Multinational study shows that 6-7 year-olds who ate fast food 3 times per week had a 27 percent increased risk of severe asthma. Although a link is established, it does not confirm it causes asthma.

Happy Meals

If you are going to eat at McDonald’s a possible healthier kid’s choice would be the happy meal with hamburger, apple slices, and Apple juice Box, even though it was mentioned earlier McDonald’s was listed as one of the top chains Restaurants that did not meet the Restaurant Industry healthy food standards. There needs to be healthier choices for kids than just one happy meal. This happy meal gives you 360 calories and 510-mg. sodium. What fast food choices are you making with your children?

Source:

Think fast when kids want fast food

http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/think-fast-when-kids-want-fast-food-201301315846


Fast Food Linked to Severe Asthma in Children

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/01/14/fast-food-linked-to-severe-asthma-in-children

The Best and Worst Kids’ Fast Food Meals

http://news.menshealth.com/best-and-worst-fast-food-meals/2012/10/27/