There has been a lot of hand wringing about why so many Americans, particularly kids, are overweight and obese.

It turns out it’s the restaurants’ fault.

Which is quite a relief to many parents who thought maybe they had some hand in it.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest released a report showing restaurants serve a lot of high-fat, high-calorie meals for kids.

A full 93 percent of all possible children’s menu choices are too high in calories. (A kids’ meal shouldn’t exceed 430 calories — one-third the calories a kid under 8 should consume in a day.)

Chili’s has 700 possible kids’ meal combinations, but 658, or 94 percent, of those are too high in calories. One Chili’s meal comprised of country-fried chicken crispers, cinnamon apples and chocolate milk contained 1,020 calories, while another comprised of cheese pizza, homestyle fries, and lemonade contained 1,000 calories.

Subway, which gives juice and fruit with its kids’ meals, passed the calorie test for most every combination it offers.

Calories and saturated fat are of increased interest considering 63 percent of Americans are overweight and one-third are obese.

“Chains are conditioning kids to expect burgers, fried chicken, pizza, French fries, macaroni and cheese, and soda in various combination at almost every lunch and dinner,” said a spokesman for the group. He said parents want to feed their kids good food but are “being set up to fail.”

Which is almost right. We wish our kids ate better. We wish we ate better. But most of us don’t want to. We know that handing a big box of fries, deep-fried chicken chunks and a cup of pop to the kids isn’t good. And we know the pizza and double cheeseburger we’re eating isn’t health food.

Which isn’t exactly the restaurant’s fault. They may be pandering to us, but so far they aren’t pulling unwilling people off the street and shoving breakfast biscuits down their throats.

But the restaurants’ hands aren’t quite clean, either.

Too many promote items as being healthy when they aren’t. And most chains provide ridiculously sized portions. It was an arms race between chains to see who could give customers a bigger perception of value by serving larger and larger amounts of food.

You used to eat off a plate. Now entrees are piled high on a platter the size of an Oldsmobile hub cap.

And many restaurants don’t give customers nutrition information, even if they want it. The Science and Public Interest group wasn’t even able to provide information on six leading restaurant chains — Outback Steakhouse, Applebee’s, TGIFriday’s, IHOP, Olive Garden and Red Lobster — because they don’t disclose nutrition information about their meals even when asked.

Which doesn’t seem right. It’s one thing for restaurants to give you the information about the high fat, high calorie food they offer and let you decide; it’s another to not tell you at all.

I went to an independent Web site that measures the nutritional value of those chains that won’t provide the information themselves. I was particularly interested in one favored item — the riblets with sauce, baked beans, coleslaw and fries.

Scrolling down, I found it. Each menu item has a letter grade next to it. My riblets got a big fat “F.”

I’m supposed to eat about 2,400 calories a day. The riblets have 2,027.

And they have 200 percent of my total daily fat needs and 210 percent of my saturated fat needs.

They have 130 percent of the cholesterol and 93 percent of all the salt I should get in a day.

Now I’m wishing I hadn’t gone looking for the information. Ignorance was bliss.

The recession may have cut into dining out, but the American love affair with eating excess isn’t likely to abate.

We can point our fingers at restaurants, but it’s a little like the crack addict blaming his dealer.



Tim Krohn is a Free Press staff writer. He can be contacted at 344-6383 or tkrohn@mankatofreepress.com