America’s Best and Worst Restaurants for Families

For Well Moms on the go, even for those who eat home-cooked meals most of the time, eating out is part of the regular routine. In my family, it’s usually on the weekends that we grab a meal or two in a restaurant with the kids. It’s fast. There are no dishes to wash. And the little ones have a good time. The problem is that while I’m sitting there ordering a grilled chicken salad sans dressing for myself, many times I’m at a loss for what to order for my toddlers. If it was up to them, I am sure that fries, ketchup, and chocolate ice cream would suffice. Now a new book coming out later this month, Eat This Not That! for Kids!: Be the Leanest, Fittest Family on the Block! may offer Well Moms like us some guidance on making better choices.

Co-authors David Zinczenko and Matt Goulding created a report card for forty-three national chain restaurants. Over the course of a year, they compared children’s entrees and calculated calories, fat (trans and saturated) and sodium, as well as the average number of calories per children’s serving. Six popular spots received failing grades, while others scored extra points for offering healthy vegetable and fruit side dishes and beverage alternatives to sugary soda. Some of the restaurants were also docked points for refusing to release nutritional information to customers.

A lot of the information can also help us parents make smarter choices for ourselves, too. Men’s Health editor Zinczenko is the author of the amazing Abs Diet for Women (which I highly recommend), so I was really psyched to find out about this latest project.

Here’s an excerpt from the Eat This Not That! For Kids Restaurant Report Card:

A
Chick-fil-A
Chick-fil-A excels in every category we tested for. With a slew of low-calorie sandwiches, the country’s “healthiest” chicken nugget, a variety of solid sides like fresh fruit and soup that can be substituted into any meal.Nutritional brochures are readily available for perusing at each location. Chick-fil-A earns the award for America’s Healthiest Chain Restaurant (for kids, for the adults who drive them there, plus anybody else wise enough to make it their fast food choice).

Your Survival Strategy: Even the smartest kid in the class can still fail a test, so be on your toes at all times, even at Chik-fil-A. Limit salads with ranch or Caesar dressings, any sandwich with bacon, and make milkshakes a special treat, not an everyday beverage.