Parents seeking healthier restaurant meals for their children can start to look beyond chicken nuggets and macaroni-and-cheese. At least 19 large restaurant chains—including Burger King, Chili’s and IHOP—plan to announce today that they will include healthier options on their children’s menus. At least 15,000 restaurant locations will focus on increasing servings of fruits and vegetables, lean proteins, whole grains and low-fat dairy. The items will have reduced amounts of fats, sugars and sodium. Less healthy foods like burgers and fries will still be on the menu, but the restaurants say they will do more to promote healthier options. Chili’s, for example, will highlight a chicken sandwich with a side of pineapple or mandarin oranges on their kids’ menu. Burger King has recently reformulated children’s chicken nuggets so they include less sodium, and employees taking orders will ask if customers want healthier apple fries instead of the standard “fries with that?” The concerted effort is part of a new National Restaurant Association initiative to give children more healthy options at restaurants and to make it easier for parents to find those options. Some of the items are already on menus, but restaurants will advertise them more prominently and flag the healthier menu items to make ordering easier. The companies signing up for the initiative are Au Bon Pain, Bonefish Grill, Burger King, Burgerville, Carrabba’s Italian Grill, Chevys, Chili’s, Corner Bakery Cafe, Cracker Barrel, Denny’s, El Pollo Loco, Friendly’s, IHOP, Joe’s Crab Shack, Outback Steakhouse, Silver Diner, Sizzler, T-Bones Great American Eatery and zpizza.
Today’s poll question: Are you more likely to eat at a restaurant that is part of an initiative to offer healthier children’s meals?
