What Olympia kid passing by McDonald's downtown or Wendy's on Harrison Avenue doesn't sometimes clamor for a fast food fix -- loudly and repeatedly -- until Mom or Dad relents?
Children are inundated with more fast-food ads on television than ever before, according to a recent University of Illinois study.
Many parents do give in to the repeated haranguing, but doctors agree fast food meals for kids should not be a regular occurrence.
According to a report released today from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, all five of the following five worst fast-food kids meals are high in fat, cholesterol, and sodium. None would meet the nutritional standards for healthful children’s lunches set last year by the Institute of Medicine.
Leading the list of the five worst fast-food kids meals is McDonald's Mighty Kids Double Cheeseburger Meal, which has 840 calories and 37 grams of fat. It also serves up nearly as much sodium as a child should consume in one day.
The following meals also made the worst kids meal list:
- Wendy's Chicken Sandwich Meal (770 calories)
- KFC's Popcorn Chicken Meal (800 calories)
- A&W Cheeseburger Meal (780 calories)
- Burger King's Breakfast Muffin Sandwich Meal (95 milligrams of cholestrol and exceeds the recommended sodium limit for kids)
A report this month from researchers at the College of William and Mary also found that children who live near or attend schools close to fast food restaurants are more likely to be obese.
And according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated one in three children born in 2000 will develop diabetes in his or her lifetime, a trend driven by the obesity epidemic.
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