Chain restaurants to make kids menus healthier

WASHINGTON — Parents seeking healthier restaurant meals for their kids can start to look beyond chicken nuggets and macaroni-and-cheese.

At least 19 restaurant chains — including Burger King, Chili's, IHOP and Friendly's — said Wednesday that they will include healthier options on their children's menus. At least 15,000 restaurant locations participating in the Kids Live Well initiative will focus on increasing servings of fruits and vegetables, lean proteins, whole grains and low-fat dairy. The items will have less fats, sugars and sodium.

Chili's, for example, will highlight a chicken sandwich with a side of pineapple or mandarin oranges on their kids menu.

Burger King has recently reformulated children's chicken nuggets so they include less sodium, and employees taking orders will ask if customers want Fresh Apple Fries (actually, apples sliced to look like fries, with caramel dipping sauce) instead of just the standard "fries with that?"

The effort is part of a new National Restaurant Association initiative to give kids more healthful options at restaurants and to make it easier for parents to find those options. To be part of the program, restaurants must include at least one kids-menu item that is 600 calories or less and meets other nutritional requirements. A side dish of less than 200 calories must also be included.

First lady Michelle Obama last year attended a National Restaurant Association meeting in Washington and pleaded with them to take a little butter or cream out of their dishes, use low-fat milk and provide apple slices or carrots as a default side. She said Americans eat a third of their meals in restaurants, which have long been seen by many as the worst offenders in terms of nutrition.

Mollie Grow, a Seattle Children's pediatrician who also does research on childhood obesity, saw the initiative as a positive sign. "I think one of the things we know from parents is they oftentimes don't know" which option is the healthiest, she said. Still, she said we shouldn't get too excited. "It's a small step," she noted.

After all, the restaurants need offer only one "healthy" item. And the food industry's definition of healthy may not be exactly what doctors like herself have in mind. Take those Apple Fries, for instance: "why ruin a good thing" by dipping them in processed sweet stuff, she wondered?

Chain restaurants signing up for the initiative are Au Bon Pain; Bonefish Grill; Burger King; Burgerville; Carrabba's Italian Grill; Chevys; Chili's; Corner Bakery Café; Cracker Barrel; Denny's; El Pollo Loco; Friendly's; IHOP; Joe's Crab Shack; Outback Steakhouse; Silver Diner; Sizzler; T-Bones Great American Eatery; and zpizza.

Noticeably absent from the group of participating restaurant chains is McDonald's.

"We listen to our customers and continue to provide balanced menu options, including meals for our youngest guests," spokeswoman Ashlee Yingling said.

Anita Jones-Mueller, founder of San Diego-based Healthy Dining, said she hoped the Oak Brook, Ill., giant would sign on eventually. Her company collaborated with the restaurant association to create the Kids Live Well program.

Joe Taylor of Chili's said the company has responded to consumer demands for healthier foods. While diners looking for a healthier meal used to have to ask for substitutions, they now have more options.

"We've seen our guests customize their meals to a greater degree when they are looking to hold the mayo or add the broccoli," Taylor said.

John Dillon of Denny's said the company recently took photos of French fries off their menus.

Still, it's one thing to offer healthful items. It's another thing entirely for customers to eat them. Food producers and marketing companies are aware of the reality: Most people don't choose food because it's healthful. Research, both locally and nationally, bears this out.

Eating decisions are driven first by taste, said Adam Drewnowski, a University of Washington researcher who studies obesity. Then cost. Then convenience. "Health," he said, "is last."

Two studies of menu labeling, one of them in King County, failed to show that posting calorie counts makes much of a difference in people's eating decisions.

The federal government also will soon require restaurants to post calories on their menus. FDA guidelines will require chain restaurants with 20 or more locations, along with bakeries, grocery stores, convenience stores and coffee chains, to clearly post the calories.

Compiled from The Associated Press, Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune reports with material from Seattle Times staff reporter Maureen O'Hagan.