Wednesday, November 4, 2015
JPB Foundation-Funded Research Examines Children’s Menu Choices
To parents of picky eaters across the country, the idea that simply changing kids' menu options can encourage healthier choices in restaurants might seem like a pipe dream. But according to new research published today in the November issue of Health Affairs, customers at one restaurant chain that began offering healthier kids' meals in April 2012 have continued to choose the healthier options more than two years later.
In a previous study published in the journal Obesity, researchers from ChildObesity180 at Tufts University Friedman School observed healthier ordering patterns shortly after the Silver Diner family restaurant chain made healthy changes to its children's menu. The team then followed up to measure outcomes more than one and two years later. The new research shows that the healthy changes in orders of children's items were sustained, and in some cases continued to improve, over the following two years. . .