How Eating Out Contributes to Childhood Obesity

Yesterday I read an appalling oped article in USA Today about the difficulty of making healthy food choices when eating out in restaurants. Most restaurants do not list the nutritional information of their menu items. So how do you know if you are making a good choice?

You don’t. But, hey, eating out is a bit of a splurge - right? Go out, enjoy, don’t worry too much about the calories, tomorrow you can make up for it by exercising or eating salad.

If you have the same philosophy, you will be just as shocked as I was when I read about the extreme fat content of some items on children’s menus. No wonder childhood obesity is becoming epidemic.

In particular, USA Today singled out Romano’s Macaroni Grill. On the children’s menu at Romano’s Macaroni Grill, there is an entree called Kids Double Macaroni and Cheese. Again, according to the USA Today article the nutritional information for this choice includes:

1200 calories, 3450 milligrams of sodium and as much saturated fat as you would find in 40 strips of bacon.

40 Strips of bacon!!? To me, that is just plain irresponsible on the part of the restaurant. How can a business take my money and feed my children artery blocking food that contributes to childhood obesity, without even informing me of the nutritional information? This food needs a warning sticker not a nutrition label!

If you think that this is isolated to Romano’s Macaroni Grill - sadly, it is not. What should be an enjoyable family night out, now leaves parents stressed and uncertain. And political pressure from the National Restaurant Association (NRA) is blocking legislation that would require restaurants to report nutritional information on their menus.

We have heard, ad nauseum, that American adults and their children are getting heavier. Childhood obesity is on the rise. As a parent, our first line of defense is our own pantries. Shop for and offer healthy foods to the kids. But seldom do we worry about that one dinner out each week, each month, etc. Now it is time to take note.

If you plan to eat at a major chain, check their website before you go to see if the nutritional information is listed. If not, use your best judgment - teach your children about making good food choices and continue to foster a love of healthy foods in the home.

Building self esteem in our children is part of a parent’s job. If you have a daughter, this job is made even more difficult because of the media.

This commercial by Dove may be a bit extreme - but it summarizes all of the body image messages that our daughters are being bombarded with. Messages that tell them that they are not beautiful “as is”. We, as parents, need to be aware of this and the effect that it has on our goal of building self esteem.

Take a peek at the video and tell me what you think. Is it over the top or is it an accurate reflection on how our daughters will someday perceive themselves? What can we do about this - and how can we twist these negative media messages to work on building self esteem instead of breaking it down?

Where can I find dairy free Rice Krispie Treats?

Nowadays, dairy allergy is very common in children. Unfortunately, the pre-packaged Kellogg’s Rice Krispie Treats bars contain dairy (according to the Kellogg’s website). Does that mean that milk allergic children cannot eat Rice Krispie Treats?

Well, the answer is yes and no. Children with dairy allergy cannot safely eat the pre-package Rice Krispie Treats bars. But with a little effort, mom or dad can make their own dairy free Rice Kripie Treats.

According to the Kellogg’s website, original Rice Krispies Cereal does not contain milk. I previously wrote about how to make homemade Rice Krispie Treats. This simple recipe has only three ingredients - Original Rice Krispies Cereal, marshmallows, and butter. To convert this recipe to dairy free Rice Krispie Treats you need to substitute a dairy free margarine in place of the butter. Make sure to read the ingredients on the margarine to confirm that it does not contain dairy!  Also, confirm (by reading the ingredients) that the marshmallows you are using, and the Rice Krispies (it never hurts to double check the ingredients), all contain safe ingredients.

Once you have made sure that all of the ingredients are dairy free then follow the recipe. Dairy free Rice Krispie Treats that are homemade are a favorite in our house!

If you are feeling a bit creative you can take the homemade Rice Krispie Treats Recipe one step further and make Festive homemade Rice Krispie Treats Holiday Wreaths. This recipe can be easily modified to create Rice Krispie Treats shapes for any occasion. I personally have made this versatile recipe into Valentine’s hearts, Halloween pumpkins, birthday cupcakes, and shamrocks. The possibilities are only limited by your imagination.

And the bonus is that even non-allergic children line up for this childhood favorite.

This week’s Friday Giveaway Roundup consists of one item:

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This package is a $299 value and is perfect for college bound students that want to have an edge over the competition. This is a chance to get this fantastic program absolutely FREE!

There is no obligation to buy anything - but you must hurry - the deadline to enter is midnight on March 28, 2008. Visit this post: Win an ApplyWise College Admission Counseling Program! to enter.

All you need to do is leave a simple comment like - “I would love to win!”. That’s it!

Good Luck to all!

I just discovered a new site called MyLot.com. I haven’t had too much time to explore but it seems quite interesting. Basically, you can customize your profile and MyLot will aggregate info from around the web that may be of interest to you based on your profile. That is really my rudimentary understanding of the site but I think there is a lot more to it.

And did I mention that you can earn money by referring new users, commenting and participating in discussions on the site?

I will update this post as I learn more.

In the meantime, if you can check out my profile here at MyLot (myLot User Profile).