The health impacts when children eat fast food have been carefully studied as Americans grow more diet conscious and especially American children’s obesity rates have risen. Many fast food restaurants are trying to promote healthier fast food alternatives — apples instead of fries, milk or juice instead of soda — in order to keep customers coming in. However the main contents of most fast food meals, like burgers or chicken nuggets, still are high fat, high salt foods. Parents are concerned about the excessive marketing to children, especially when the payoff is a toy of some sort.

Childhood obesity is linked to fast food consumption. Studies have shown that when children eat fast food once weekly, they gained about six more pounds (2.72 kg) per year than did their peers who did not eat fast food. When children eat fast food several times a week they are far more likely to have a higher body mass index. As kids age, the negative effects of fast food increase. A ten year old is more affected by weekly consumption of fast food meals than is a seven year old. Even when kids were active, if children eat fast food on a weekly basis they still weighed more.

Another disadvantage if children eat fast food is the fact that most items in a fast food diet do not promote a feeling of fullness. This is because most foods contain refined starch. This leads to higher insulin levels and may result in people actually feeling hungrier instead of full. In contrast, whole grains, green veggies and fruit generally make people feel more full. The conclusion when children eat fast food is that they are more likely to consume more of it, than they would a meal prepared at home that included “healthy foods.”

There is little evidence that if children eat fast food on a very limited basis they are going to have dietary or weight problems. Limited might mean that children eat fast food once every few months. The big problem is that most children eat fast food more than once a week.

Studies do suggest that fast food should be consumed only occasionally, rather than being part of a child’s usual menu. When you do decide to use fast food restaurants, consider the following tips:

• Avoid the empty calories of soda and allow children milk or water instead.
• Bring along some nutritional foods like carrot sticks, or apples to eat prior to getting fast food in order to avoid overeating.
• Limit portion size by ordering kids meals only.
• Avoid french fries and opt for other sides like apples or a baked potato.

If your children eat fast food on a regular basis, consider weaning them off it by offering low fat fast food-like alternatives. You can make baked homemade oven fries with just a tiny bit of oil, for instance and load up hamburgers on wheat buns with lots of spicy and healthy nutritional items, like lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, and onions.

Try your own baked chicken nugget recipes with whole skinless white meat chicken dipped in milk and rolled in breadcrumbs. Also provide salads, or fruit or vegetables with every meal. Additionally, if your kids love fast food toys, buy a few inexpensive toys and make your own meal with cool toys for kids.