Children are eating less frequently at fast-food restaurants and consuming fewer calories from burgers, pizza and chicken sold at the outlets, say two researchers from Tufts and the University of Washington. They drew their conclusion from a national survey, conducted four times since 2003, that asked children to recall what they ate the preceding day. In 2003-04, nearly 39 percent of children said they ate at a fast-food restaurant. The figure fell to roughly 33 percent in 2009-10. Calories consumed at burger, pizza and chicken outlets declined while holding steady at shops specializing in sandwiches or Mexican dishes.
“What was surprising was the difference in trends by type of restaurant,” author Colin Rehm of Tufts told Time. Rehm said he and fellow researcher Adam Drewnoski knew adults were cutting back on fast food, so they suspected they would find similar results among children. The change in calorie totals “suggests that a combination of consumer behavior and changes made by restaurants can actually impact diet,” Rehm said in the Time story. The study did not examine why children cut back on fast-food. Nor did it look at what children were eating instead. Time quoted Rehm as saying, “The last thing we want to be doing is replace calories with even poorer calories.”