No Fry Zone
Restaurants are moving away from fried foods toward healthier options for kids
By Janet Groene
South Florida Parenting
When you take children to a restaurant, you can be certain, reliably, of one thing: Unless it's a pizzeria or an ethnic restaurant, the kids' menu will include fried chicken and french fries.
Scientists from the Center for Science in the Public Interest were stunned to find, in a survey about a year ago of America's Top 20 sit-down restaurant chains, that every children's menu offered fried chicken in some form and the only vegetable that most menus offered was french fries. In fact, fries were on every children's menu surveyed, except one that offered hash browns. The center found that many restaurants provided free drink refills on nutritionally bankrupt sodas, but not on juice or milk. If shrimp was on the menu, it was popcorn shrimp with more batter than shrimp, fried in oils loaded with trans fats. One popular chain's kids' menu listed a cheeseburger with fries for a total of 760 calories. That's about what most kids ages 4 to 8 require in an entire day. At another chain, if you added the sundae offered on the kids' menu to a kids' cheeseburger and fries, your child would have a whopping 1,700 calories and 58 grams of fat in one meal, the center reported.
These are not the best choices for a population facing an obesity epidemic. In the past 30 years, obesity rates have tripled for ages 6-11 and doubled for younger and older children, according to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.
So what's a harried parent to do? Does this mean no restaurants until the kids are old enough to squander their college savings on adult entrees?
Fortunately, no. Since the center released its report in March, the world of children's menus has improved considerably. Many chefs, chain restaurants and several fast-food havens have wised up and added new healthy, kid-friendly options to their kids' menus. Both Wendy's and McDonald's are test-marketing kids' meals that come with milk or juice instead of soda, and fruit in place of fries. Low-carb and light-lunch choices at Dan Marino's locations include wraps and oven-baked crab cakes. Chevy's Fresh Mex restaurants offer tacos made with low-fat beans with a side of fresh fruit.
At Olive Garden, parents will find spaghetti with low-fat tomato sauce, and Cracker Barrel offers grilled chicken with a choice of vegetables. Red Lobster offers kids grilled mahi-mahi, snow-crab legs and grilled chicken with steamed vegetables. Many Benihana locations provide soy milk as one of their milk choices. In June, Applebee's added grilled chicken and pasta with marinara sauce to the kids' menu, with side options including steamed broccoli, carrots with Ranch dip and applesauce.
"We have an absurd idea that children can't enjoy quality food," says Victoria Moran, author of Fit From Within (McGraw-Hill, 2002), lauding the trend toward more choices, but lamenting that so many kids' menus still contain the staple chicken fingers, burgers, mac-and-cheese and hot dogs. "When do we expect children to develop a civilized palate? It's going to take treating children like people and saying, 'The Asian stir-fry sounds good. So does the broiled salmon. What do you think?'"
Upscale restaurants take the lead
At the vanguard of the trend toward healthier kids' menus was Roger Berkowitz, chief executive of Legal Seafoods. He first heard about trans fats at a meeting at Harvard University a few years ago and immediately set about eliminating them from his kitchens - for the health of his adult customers as well as kids. New oils were ordered and a baked goods supplier was fired because it couldn't produce trans-fat-free oyster crackers. The company also tests for mercury in its tuna and swordfish. Now Legal Seafood's restaurants offer kids a host of healthful options including lobster that is cut up and put back in the shell for easier eating and fish-shaped pasta for kids who are allergic to seafood.
South Florida's most-chic family resorts also were among the first to jump on the healthy-kids bandwagon, serving up some of the most extensive and creative choices for children.
The Boca Raton Resort and Club has offered a healthy kids menu to resort guests for a few years, featuring tuna on rainbow bread, cheesy pasta with peas, whole-wheat pancakes shaped like tennis racquets, smoothies and other fun foods.
The Deco Blue Restaurant in the South Beach Marriott features a "Fit for Life" menu that shows detailed nutritional information for all items - including organic vegetables and certified Angus beef. The Fit for Life program at the Marriott Marco Island begins the day with a kids' Healthy Start Buffet, a small version of the adult buffet. Here kids find oatmeal, granola, fresh fruit and choice of breakfast breads. At lunch or dinner, kids can order the cheese quesadilla made with a low-carb wrap or pasta with marinara.
At The Breakers Palm Beach, the resort's Italian restaurant adjoins the family entertainment center, where there's fun for all - from a toddlers' play center to an arcade and computer games. Families can order from a menu that includes pastas and wood-fired pizzas. Soon the kids are well fed and on their way to the secure, self-contained play center while Mom and Dad linger over their coffee.
"So many parents ... feel they must limit or relinquish their desire for good restaurants when they are joined by their children," says Kevin Walters, father of four and vice president of food and beverage at The Breakers. "It is absolutely not the case."
How to find the healthiest choices
Don't think your family is unwelcome at gourmet restaurants, where fresh food is cooked to order. Many pride themselves on pleasing discerning parents and their children.
"It's not always easy to get the 'healthy eating' message across to kids," says Jeffrey Laign, author of Live Healthy Now and Forever (Cold Spring Press, 2003). "It's doubtful that any child would rank steamed asparagus at the top of a favorite foods list," he says. "But what if you ordered those spears with a tangy peanut dipping sauce?"
The best restaurants are also the best places to take kids who have food allergies. Peanut sauce can easily be switched to bernaise or remoulade, and special foods can be made to your request.
If the cost of more upscale restaurants is not in your budget, you can outwit the fat-laden kids' menu at almost any restaurant and flatter your children at the same time. Just wave away the children's menu and say: "Oh, my children prefer to order from the adult menu." Then steer attentions to appetizers and low-fat finger foods on the main menu.
The sports bars and arcade restaurants that kids love are among the worst offenders when it comes to kids' meals. Before you eat at such a restaurant, try letting your kids fill up on a healthy appetizer from home - carrots and cucumbers with ranch dip, apple slices with peanut butter, cheese and whole-grain crackers. Offer the snack before you leave or in the car on the way. If the children aren't hungry when they get there, they won't load up on empty, greasy calories. You can spend the money you would have spent on food at the arcade instead.
When you have a choice of restaurants, look for ones that offer healthy foods on the kids' menu. Most restaurants now post their menus online, so you can make your decision before leaving home.
Computer-savvy kids can take part in restaurant selection, too. Ask them to look for restaurants that offer entertaining presentation rather than the same old crayons and puzzles. Japanese steak houses, for example, dazzle kids with flashy stir-fry presentations while producing grilled meat and veggies. Melting Pot fondue restaurants offer a vegetable broth alternative and kids are fascinated by the tableside presentation. Sweet Tomatoes is a great big buffet, starting with the salad bar. The serve-yourself pasta and ice-cream bars are tucked away where you don't see them until your plate is already full of salad.
When time is an issue, break out of the bag-with-a-prize habit and try fast-food restaurants known for healthy choices, such as Subway, Chicken Kitchen, Boston Market, Pollo Tropical or Baja Fresh. With luck, the kids will soon clamor to go to a new favorite restaurant that also has healthier food.
But Lisa Ianucci, co-author of Healthy Travels (Better Health Publications, 2005) says you don't need to sweat a kids' meal in a bag occasionally, especially with milk and fruit instead of soda and fries. "Even a cookie is OK," she says. What's more important is how much kids eat. "It doesn't matter that kids' menus become healthier if you supersize and then make [children] clean their plates." Let kids quit eating when they say they're full.
And finally, whenever you encounter a restaurant with a great kids' menu, voice your praise to the server, cashier, manager, chef and fill out the comment card if there is one. As a repeat customer, mention that healthy food choices brought you back.
Janet Groene's books include Open Road's Caribbean Guide, Hunter's Romantic Weekends: Central & Northern Florida, and Cooking Aboard Your RV. She lives near Orlando.
