Kids really don’t have a chance. A review of the calorie counts shows what is consumed with a fast food meal for children:

“The first comprehensive report on kids’ meals at popular fast-food and chain restaurants finds the servings are far too high in calories for a single meal.

In fact, some of meals contain more 1,000 calories, which is almost as many calories as some elementary-school children need for the entire day…”

link: Some ‘kids’ meals’ pack whole day’s serving of calories

Not only is the calorie count high but exposure to such meals trains the body. The developing child’s body becomes used to such an immediate input of high calorie foods. As the body adapts to these meals, it redefines what the child identifies as hunger. The child’s body may adapt to this amount of calories and craves this amount energy in the food intake.

There are obvious short term and long term implications for health. It is a high risk trade off for the convenience and speed of fast food meals. With this amount of calories per meal and adapting to these calorie levels, what chance do the children have to maintain a healthy body weight?

Catherine Forsythe