A new study of the nutritional quality of meals for children on the menus of the nation's largest chain restaurants has found that 91 percent do not even meet the standards set by the National Restaurant Association's Kids LiveWell program.
An even larger percentage — 97 percent of restaurant children's meals — failed to meet stricter standards developed by a panel of nutrition and health experts for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the nonprofit research and advocacy group that commissioned the study.
"These were pretty dismal results," said Margo G. Wootan, its director of nutrition policy.
The center did a similar study in 2008, which found that 99 percent of restaurant meals offered for children did not meet the standards. Ms. Wootan said she had expected a more significant improvement, particularly since many restaurant chains have been promoting their healthier options for youngsters.
"It's one thing if they had gone from 99 percent unhealthy to 50-50," she said. "But to go from 1 percent of kids' meals being healthy to 3 percent over four years — it's as if the restaurant industry hasn't heard there is an obesity epidemic in this country."
The center singled out Subway as the only restaurant that did not offer sugared drinks with its children's meals, instead suggesting water or low-fat milk. All eight of the sandwich chain's Fresh Fit for Kids meal combinations met the nutritional criteria.
At the other extreme were meals like grilled cheese on sourdough bread accompanied by fries and 2 percent chocolate milk at Applebee's. The meal contained 1,210 calories, almost half of which came from fat, or almost three times the amount of calories as the center's criteria for 4- to 8-year-olds allowed.
In a statement, DineEquity, the parent company of Applebee's, said its children's menu offered other choices that were "significantly" lower in calories, fat and sodium, like a grilled chicken sandwich with a side of steamed broccoli and apple or grape juice, which contains 355 calories.
"We know Applebee's best serves our guests by providing a wide selection of dishes, and we'll continue to do so by expanding the number of options for kids by the end of this year," the company said.
Applebee's is one of 120 restaurant chains that participate in the National Restaurant Association's Kids LiveWell program, which requires that at least one children's meal have two servings of fruits or vegetables, whole grains and a low-fat dairy product and be under 600 calories. There are 342 meal options that meet the criteria among the first 19 chains that signed onto the program, the association says.
Anita Jones-Mueller, a registered dietitian and founder of the Web site Healthy Dining Finder, which works with the association to design and monitor the program, said many of the restaurant companies that support the site were working hard to improve the nutritional quality of the meals they offered children.
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