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Food

15th Oct 2017

Nando’s listed as one of the most unhealthy restaurants for children to eat in

World Obesity Day takes place next Wednesday.

Denise Curtin

This surprised us.

Finding healthy options for children in restaurants isn’t always easy. And parents throughout Ireland and the United Kingdom are noticing that this is becoming an increasing problem.

Therefore, to mark World Obesity Day, chef and journalist, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall sent 90 families in the UK out to secretly review kids menus across the country listing them under a range of criteria from nutritional value to portion size to range of options and the results are in.

Some of the restaurants listed are food chains available here in Ireland too and some have taken us by surprise.

Nando’s, KFC, TGI Fridays and Burger King made the bottom of the list for the most unhealthy restaurants for children.

On the other hand, restaurants that were seen as the healthiest for children thanks to their organic offerings and selection of healthy options included Jamie’s Italian (Dundrum Town Centre) and Wetherspoons.

Restaurants which faired “OK”, included Wagamama, Zizzi, McDonald’s, Pizza Express and Pizza Hut.

The Out To Lunch campaign by chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is hoping to bring awareness to child obesity and encourage bars and restaurants to change their menus to offer a wider and healthier range for children.

Their guidelines include:

1. Serve two portions of veg with every child’s meal.
2. Ensure children’s desserts are an appropriate portion size.
3. Make water freely available and stop promoting sugary drinks to children.
4. Offer children’s portions of adult dishes.
5. Offer quality ingredients such as free range and organic on the children’s menu.
6. Provide children’s cutlery as standard.
7. Make breastfeeding mums feel welcome.

You can read all about the campaign here.