Kids not eating veggies at restaurants, either

December 6, 2005

BY JANET RAUSA FULLER Staff Reporter

One of the most popular items on the children’s menu at Chicago’s Wishbone restaurant is something called the Rabbit Patch — a choice of three sides from a vegetable-heavy list of more than a dozen offerings, plus a corn muffin.

Co-owner Guy Nickson said kids who order the dish tend to pick one starch such as mashed potatoes and then “something a little more intrepid” — often sauteed green beans or asparagus.

Wishbone’s pint-sized customers may have the opportunity to go for the greens, but variety and vegetables are still lacking in children’s menus, a report from a Chicago restaurant consulting firm shows.

Chicken fingers, pizza, burgers, mac ‘n’ cheese and grilled cheese are the five most common entrees on kids menus at chain restaurants, according to the report by Technomic Information Services.

The report surveyed the 250 top restaurant chains, 161 of which had separate kids menus, and found a vegetable entree offered by only one restaurant, Cracker Barrel. Salads were listed 25 times on the menus surveyed, usually as a side.

Kids menus offer on average seven items. Chicken entrees, pasta dishes, burgers and sandwiches account for nearly half of all items, the report found.

The tally of menu items doesn’t surprise Diane Quagliani, a registered dietitian and nutrition consultant in Western Springs.

“These are kid-friendly foods and foods that kids really like and restaurants don’t serve foods that their customers won’t order, and that’s the bottom line,” she said. “And actually, these are a lot of the same foods kids are eating at home, too.”

Indeed, another survey by Technomic done earlier this year showed that chicken fingers were what parents said they ordered most often for kids, said Eric Giandelone, editorial manager at Technomic.

‘Children’s miserable diets’

There has been a move toward healthier items and preparations on kids menus in recent years in response to rising obesity rates, experts say. Obesity among children has more than tripled over the past four decades, according to an Institute of Medicine report on food marketing to kids to be released today.

The Technomic report cites the addition of grilled chicken at several chains, including Houlihan’s and Outback Steakhouse, and the much-publicized rollout of fresh fruit sides at McDonald’s and Wendy’s.

But eateries still should be doing more, such as using reduced-fat cheese and whole grains, “to make these mediocre foods less bad,” said Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. The center did a nutritional analysis of typical fare on kids’ menus in February 2004 and found calorie and fat counts comparable to adult meals.

“Restaurants should see it as a responsibility to be part of the solution to children’s miserable diets,” he said. “I recognize they can’t turn their restaurants into a health food operation, but they can certainly do a lot better than they’re doing now.”

jfuller@suntimes.com

Source: suntimes.com