Apparently, not all fruit punch is the same. A new review of chain restaurant menus found that the health of children's beverages was worse in many ways than the health of comparable adult non-alcoholic beverages.
The study eliminated common soft drinks and basic coffee and tea beverages, and then compared the nutritional content of the remaining beverages marketing to children versus those marketed to adults in chain sit-down and fast-food restaurants. On average, the children's beverages had 15 grams of fat and 11 grams of saturated fat while the adult drinks averaged only 13 grams of fat and 8 grams of saturated fat.
The averages were tilted by the number of milkshakes and dessert-like beverages offered to children, compared to the smoothies and specialty teas offered to adults. Some child beverages also tended to have more sodium and calories, according to the study, which was published in Public Health Nutrition and supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
It was no surprise that sit-down restaurants tended to have healthier main course options than fast food restaurants, and that appetizers across the board were unhealthy. But an intriguing finding is that restaurants offered healthier items when they publicized their nutrition information and made it available to customers online. It would seem that transparency motivates restaurants to clean up the fat and sodium content of their menu items ...
