Nineteen restaurant chains representing more than 15,000 locations are participating in "Kids LiveWell," a new, voluntary initiative designed to provide kids and their parents with a wider, readily identifiable range of healthy kids' meals.
Participants in the "Kids LiveWell" initiative, from the National Restaurant Association in collaboration with Healthy Dining (operator of HealthyDiningFinder.com), agree to offer and promote a selection of items that meet nutritional criteria based on the 2010 USDA Dietary Guidelines and leading health organizations' scientific recommendations. Healthy Dining's registered dietitians work with participants to validate menu choices meeting the program's criteria.
Initial participants include Au Bon Pain, Bonefish Grill, Burger King, Burgerville, Carrabba's Italian Grill, Chevys Fresh Mex, Chili's Grill & Bar, Corner Bakery Cafe, 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.
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Mega-chains McDonald's and Subway are notably absent. However, the restaurant association says it expects to add more participants and thousands more locations in the coming months, as well as see the number of menu options grow.
To participate, chains must:
The full rundown of required nutritional criteria, and all of the meals that qualify thus far, are listed on HealthyDiningFinder.com.
The Restaurant Association and Healthy Dining are providing national promotion of the program. In addition, participating restaurants receive placement on HealthyDiningFinder's Kids LiveWell Web site and an icon that can be used on menus to indicate the healthier choices.
The restaurant association has gathered positive comments from leaders at a number of key health organizations and consumer groups, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, the Yale University Prevention Research Center, the Campaign to End Obesity and Action for Healthy Kids.
However, Margo G. Wootan, nutrition policy director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, responded to the launch of the Kids LiveWell program with a statement maintaining that it doesn't go far enough.
Wootan says that most restaurants offer only one or two healthy choices amid a "minefield" of unhealthy options, citing a 2008 CSPI study that found that 93% of kids' meals in the top 25 restaurant chains were too high in calories, 45% too high in saturated fat and 86% too high in salt. Given that kids are consuming one-third of their calories away from home and that "eating out is linked to obesity," she contends, "the great majority" of meals on children's menus should be healthy options.
"Restaurants -- especially McDonald's, which is not part of the new initiative -- should follow Burger King's lead" by actively asking parents whether they want fries and soft drinks in kids' meals to be replaced by a side of fruit or vegetables and milk, juice or water, Wootan says. CSPI's study of McDonald's found that while the chain shows healthier options in its advertising, its employees "usually stick fries in the box without even asking parents what they want," she says.