Until my older children tired of the ritual, I would take them to the Silver Diner in Rockville, Maryland, every Saturday morning. A few years ago, we noticed a drastic change in the menu, with more emphasis on healthy food. A new analysis of that change published in Health Affairs backs up our family's experience and suggests that it had substantial effects on the food children ordered.
In the study, items on the children's menu were considered healthy if they met the “Kids Livewell” criteria. Before the menu change, 3 percent of all entrees ordered from the kids' menu were healthy ones, and French fries accounted for 57 percent of side dishes. (My children, truth be told, were doing nothing to improve these depressing statistics.)
Read Full Article »