The latest analysis of fast foods sends parents a simple but clear message: if you want your kids healthy and happy, then avoid fast foods and get ready for a trip in your own kitchen!

The analysis was made by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer group based in Washington D.C. and revealed that most meals offered at the fast food are unhealthy and loaded with too many calories and too much sodium.

It has long been known that fast food meals are not the best choice if you want to be healthy. However, this is the first analysis to focus on different menus offered to children who are more than thrilled when mommy or daddy takes them to McDonalds, KFC, Taco Bell, or Burger King.

Maybe parents need to think twice before making such a decision and the latest research in the field does more than helping them to decide what’s best for their children and why not for themselves. It’s not like fast food meals are good for grown-ups!

It is known that kids between 4 and 8 should not consume more than 1,300 calories a day, which means that a single meal should have about 430 calories. before looking on how many calories a menu has, CSPI”s researchers led by Margo G. Wootan, the center’s nutrition policy director, looked at all the possible ways children’s meals can be combined and came up with 1,714 possible choices.

Going further with their analysis, the researchers found that 93 percent of the 1,474 options had more than 430 calories, at the top of them being Chili’s country-fried chicken crispers, cinnamon apples, and chocolate milk, with 1,020 calories receiving the agency’s “Hall of Shame” award along with other five menus.
 
Coming back to the other 7 percent not included in the menus high in calories, there were some meals that met the recommended nutritional criteria for kids. One example was roast beef mini sub and juice box with any side, including apple slices or raisins or yogurt. However, the percentage of healthy food was far too low to consider the fast food as the first option when taking kids out.

Moreover, fast foods’ owners were not at all pleased with the report saying their menus improved nutritionally in recent years, in order to give diners the possibility to choose healthier foods for them and their kids.