Dining Out Nutrition for Kids: Chili’s Restaurants
My recent post, “What’s Your Kid Really Eating?” showed that we parents really need to think twice before we order our children food at a restaurant. In that, I cited an investigation that showed restaurant meals often had more calories and higher fat content than advertised. But that got me really thinking about the subject, because many times I eat out with the kids and look for kids’ meals that sound healthy.
In this new series, Dining Out Nutrition for Kids, I’m going to examine some of the most popular chain restaurants’ children’s menu items. Now, this is all presuming the advertised nutritional content is correct. But I hope it will be helpful for you as you make restaurant food orders for your children.
I was a bit surprised at a few of my findings on the Chili’s menu. I decided to first go with what I would ideally choose and what I would presume to be the healthiest meal for my kids. So that led me to “order” a grilled chicken sandwich and steamed broccoli with juice. That must be healthy, right? Well, I just gave my kids nine grams of fat, including 2 grams of saturated fat — with 6 of those fat grams coming from the steamed broccoli!
The innocent-sounding side of sweet cob of corn is also shockingly bad, with 230 calories and 7 grams of fat, as is the side of cinnamon apples, with 210 calories and 8 grams of fat.
