McDonalds’ Happy Meal Now A Healthier Meal?

In the state of Texas (and almost everywhere else in America) one out of three children are overweight or obese. There are various reasons as to why generations of children are becoming more and more overweight: lack of PE in schools, environment and poor food choices. Studies show that more and more people are eating outside of the home. Most importantly, 94% of the top 25 fast food places with kid’s menu options are extremely high in calories because they are dominated by burgers, chicken nuggets, French fries and sugary soft drinks.

Lately, McDonald’s Corporation has been receiving lots of pressure from health and children's advocacy groups to make changes to its Happy Meals. The chain has agreed to make changes! Beginning in September, McDonald’s will do a trial run by adding a serving of fruit or vegetable and reducing the portion size of French fries from 2.4 oz to 1.1 oz. By April 2012, all 14,000 locations will make the much needed change.

Here are some of the changes to make the Happy Meal a Healthy Meal

· The new French fry holders in Happy Meals will contain 1.1 ounces of potatoes, down from 2.4.

· Apple slices will be included as side dish, but it could also be carrots, raisins, pineapple slices or mandarin oranges (depends on the season and region)

· The new meals will represent, on average, a 20% decrease in calories!
· The price will stay the same.

Other changes in the past
· In 2004 McDonald’s changed by offering soda alternatives, such as 1% milk.

· It also offered an option of replacing fries with sliced apples served with low-fat caramel sauce
· In 2006, McDonald's began advertising a version of its Happy Meal that included chicken nuggets and the apple slices, marketed as Apple Dippers because of the caramel sauce.
· The result is that 88% of McDonald's customers knew about the fruit option with Happy Meals, according to the company. But only 11% of kid’s meals are ordered with apples instead of fries.

McPromises

· McDonald's is also pledging to reduce by 15% the amount of sodium
· The company recently reduced sodium in its chicken nuggets by 10%, on top of a 13% reduction in sodium after the nuggets were changed from dark meat to white meat.
· The chain said it will work toward additional reductions in sugars, saturated fat and calories by 2020 and has hired an unidentified third-party organization to report on its progress.

Check out the full article here:
http://www.latimes.com/health/la-fi-mcdonalds-20110726,0,2861497.story

Texas and the F Word…Fat!

In a report recently released by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Texas is cited as #12 in the nation in terms of obesity with an adult obesity rate of 30%. Twelve states including Texas now have obesity rates over 30%. Obesity rates exceed 25 percent 38 states. While this is the eighth annual report, this year’s report shows how the obesity epidemic has grown.

Check out some key stats from the report listed below:

§ Over the past 15 years, seven states have doubled their rate of obesity.
§ Another 10 states nearly doubled their obesity rate, with increased of at least 90 percent, and 22 more states saw obesity rates increase by at least 80 percent
§ The obesity rate in Texas increased more than 80 percent over the last 15 years.
§ Ten years ago, no state had an obesity rate above 24 percent, and now 43 states have higher obesity rates than the state that was the highest in 2000.
§ Fifteen years ago, Texas had a combined obesity and overweight rate of 50.3 percent. Now, the combined rate is 66.5 percent.
§ Fifteen years ago, Texas had a hypertension rate of 21.7 percent. Now, the rate is 27.2 percent.

"Today, the state with the lowest adult obesity rate would have had the highest rate in 1995," said Jeff Levi, Ph.D., executive director of TFAH. "There was a clear tipping point in our national weight gain over the last twenty years, and we can't afford to ignore the impact obesity has on our health and corresponding health care spending."

http://healthyamericans.org/reports/obesity2011/release.php?stateid=TX

Where A Kid Can Be a Kid!

Houston-area Chuck E. Cheese restaurants made some additions to their menu boards recently. Customers are now able to view nutritional information for nearly every menu item prior to placing their order. The new menu boards offer calories per slice of pizza for each of their pizza offerings. Calories are also listed for wings, platters, sandwiches, sides and desserts.

The Chuck E. Cheese website also offers easy access to a full nutritional information page. Check it out at http://www.chuckecheese.com/menu/nutritional-information.pdf. Restaurant goers will also notice a switch to Pepsi products. We contacted the Chuck E. Cheese corporate office about the new beverage selections and they had the following response.

“Chuck E. Cheese's elected to move to Pepsi to address our guests changingtastes. Pepsi offers us many more choices of non-carbonated drinks such asGatorade, Lipton Tea and Tropicana punch drinks. These non-carbonateddrinks are more in line with today's family focus on health, nutrition andactivity.”

Hats off to Chuck E.!

Kids everywhere can learn the importance of knowing what they are eating so as adults they can will make healthier choices!

Contributed by Meghan Allen

Baby Steps Toward Chidhood Obesity Prevention

Check out this article we found at the Orlando Sentinel:
Childhood obesity prevention is extremely important! Research is predicting that if things are not one to reduce the harmful effects of this epidemic the generation will be the first to not out live their parents. With that in mid, we applaud restaurants that are making positive strides toward undoing the damage.

Here is a blurb from the article.

Olive Garden has ditched french fries and milkshakes on its kids' menus, replacing them with grapes and fruit smoothies.
Olive Garden, owned by Orlando-based Darden Restaurants, made the changes in its menu this week. The french fries had previously been an option with chicken fingers. Now the chicken fingers are just offered with spaghetti. Also, milk now has 1 percent milk fat. It used to have 2 percent. The changes come as many restaurants are trying to offer healthier options for diners, especially younger ones.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-olive-garden-healthier-kids-meals-20110629,0,5195856.story

Healthy Options for Your Little Peeps

In today’s society, we’re constantly on the go. We do everything on the fly; we like our meals made in 60 seconds or less but we never pay attention to the facts…especially the nutrition facts. The trajectory of obesity in America is similar to the growth in consumption at fast food restaurants. Consumer spending on fast food increased to 46%. As American’s waist lines increase so does the profit margin of restaurants. Between 1978-1996 the percentage of meals consumed outside the home increased from 18% to 32%.

When it comes to the kiddies 94% of all children’s menus of the top 25 fast food restaurants are high in calories, even after making substitutions for healthier options. Over the last two decades obesity rates have tripled in children. However, there are some places that are working toward making healthy, low calorie meals a priority such as Chick Fil A.

The Chick-fil-A Kid's Meal consists of a main entre of Nuggets or Chick-n-Strips, Waffle Potato Fries, or fruit cup, and choice of 1% milk, chocolate milk, 100% apple juice, or soda. These meals are delicious and are not overly laden with calories. For example, ordering a kid’s meal of 2 chicken strips, fruit cup which counts as half a serving of fruit and milk are only 380 calories. Not to mention there is no price difference for substituting for healthier options.

Monitoring calories, eating colors such as fruits and vegetable and 60 minutes of rigorous exercise family fun are steps toward a healthier family and a healthier generation.

Check out their website for healthy tips when dining on the go.
http://www.chick-fil-a.com/Kids/Healthful