Parents should refrain from taking their children to eat at fast foods or restaurants as most kid’s meals offered in there appear to be unhealthy and loaded with too many calories and too much sodium, a report issued on Monday by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer group based in Washington D.C., reveals.

“You can hunt around and you will find a few [kids] meals that are nutritionally pretty good. But the vast majority of meals are too high in calories, saturated fat, or sodium. They are all made with refined white flour rather than whole wheat flour – not the kind of meals we ought to be encouraging people to eat,” Michael Jacobson, PhD, executive director of the CSPI, said.

This is not the first time fast foods were found inappropriate for children or even adults. However, this is the first analysis to focus on specific foods specially included in children’s menus and which are greatly liked by a worrisome number of kids without parents knowing about the risks they represent for their health.

For the study, CSPI’s researchers, led by Margo G. Wootan, the center’s nutrition policy director, analyzed the nutrition of children’s meals from 13 different restaurant chains. Before doing that, they looked at all the possible ways children’s meals can be combined and came up with 1,474 possible choices.

When analyzing their nutrition, the researchers found that 93 percent of the 1,474 options had more than 430 calories, the recommended amount of calories for the average child aged 4-8 at a single meal. According to the Institute of Medicine, these kids should consume no more than 1,300 calories a day. The researchers also found that 45 percent of the options were too high in saturated and trans fat, and 86 percent were too high in sodium. For children aged 4-8, fat should not be more than 35 percent of calories while trans fat no more than 10 percent of calories. Chains offering more than 430 calories at a single meal included KFC, Taco Bell, Jack in the Box, Sonic, McDonald’s and Burger King.

The researchers went even further with their analyze giving parents a clue about the worst five meal choices they could make for their children and also the best choices. Meals in the first category, which received CSPI’s “Hall of Shame” award, included as follows: 1. Chili’s country-fried chicken crispers, cinnamon apples, and chocolate milk, with 1,020 calories; 2. chili’s popcorn pizza, homestyle fried, and lemonade, with 1,000 calories; 3. KFC’s popcorn chicken, baked beans, bicuit, fruit punch, and Teddy Grahams, with 940 calories; 4. Burger King’s double cheeseburger, fries, and chocolate milk, with 910 calories and 5. Sonic’s grilled cheese, fries, and slushie, with 830 calories.

“When you go to most restaurants, ordering off the kids’ menu is a nightmare. Right now kids’ meals are almost unhealthy meals when they should be almost all healthy meals,” Wootan said adding that restaurants should list calories on their menus so parents can have the possibility to choose a healthy meal for their kids.

On the other hand, the report found some meals that met the recommended nutritional criteria for kids. The first four options were: 1. Subway's ham mini sub with juice box and apple slices or raisins; roast beef mini sub and juice box with any side, including apple slices or raisins or yogurt; turkey mini sub and juice box with apples slices or raisins or yogurt; 2. Chili’s grilled chicken sandwich with apple juice and corn kernels (or mandarin oranges or pineapple); 3. Denny’s pancakes without meat, with maple syrup; macaroni and cheese, and grapes and 4. Arby’s popcorn chicken or junior roast beef sandwich with fruit cup and fruit juice.

Given the circumstances, it is no wonder that the US is registering high rates of obesity among children. Therefore, parents should be more aware of what their children eat, as most of the meals offered in US fast foods and restaurants “appear to be designed to put America’s children on the fast track to obesity, disability, heart attack or diabetes,” conditions known to be related to obesity.

Previous studies recommended parents to cook more at home instead of taking their children out and have dinner at a fast food. This way they encourage a healthy diet and also they make their children realize that fast foods are not good for a healthy life.

The CSPI’s report drew criticism among restaurants and fast foods’ owners who said their menus improved nutritionally in recent years, giving diners a choice of healthier options.