KIDS MENU OF FAST FOOD CHAINS: ARE ENERGETIC VALUE AND MACRONUTRIENTS ADEQUATE TO THE NUTRITIONAL NEEDS OF CHILDREN FROM 4 TO 8 YEARS OLD?

• Autor(a) principal: Albino, Anny Victória Lacera Auerswald
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Outros Autores: Matias, Andrea Carvalheiro Guerra, Spinelli, Mônica Glória Neumann
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Revista UniVap (online)
• Texto Completo: https://revista.univap.br/index.php/revistaunivap/article/view/4364
• topic: Fast-food; Nutrição da Criança; Saúde Pública; Nutrição; Nutrição da criança; Fast-food; Saúde pública; Fast food; Child Nutrition; Public Health; Nutrition; Child Nutrition; Fast-food; Public Health

During the last decades, children’s feeding and lifestyle have suffered various changes, consequently raising overweight, obesity and the development of non-communicable diseases. This circumstance is somehow associated with the rise in food consumption out of home. Given this scenario, the aim of this study was to evaluate the offer of macronutrients in the Kids Menu from three fast food chains, comparing the nutritional needs for children from 4 to 8 years old, with an observational study of the nutritional information available online by the studied chains. The values were tabulated using the program Microsoft Excel® and the menus were compared with the recommendations from the Brazilian Society for Pediatrics (Sociedade Brasileira de Pediatria), classifying them as adequate, deficient or excessive, according to the offer for big or small meals. When the menus were compared with the recommendations for small and big meals, they presented, respectively, an excess of 97% and 14% in the energetic value, 88% and 0% in carbohydrates,100% and 0% in proteins and 89% and 22% in total fats. Even though these results may suggest the consumption of those foods would be more adequate in big meals, this does not occur, because they will occupy the place of in natura and minimally processed foods that are richer in micronutrients. Therefore, we identified the need for a mobilization of different fields of society to improve the composition of the foods and the factors that influence the consumption of fast foods.