Healthier Meal Orders Follow Revisions to Children’s Menu

Anzman-Frasca’s study found that more than two years after a healthier menu was introduced at a regional restaurant chain, three-quarters of children’s meal orders included a healthy side dish and three-quarters included a healthy beverage.

“The data suggest that this menu was working for families,” Anzman-Frasca says. “Our findings show parents that many kids will accept healthier foods in restaurants. Research has shown that repeated exposure to healthy foods will increase the likelihood of children eventually accepting them, and healthier kids’ menus are another way to get kids exposed to these foods.”

Anzman-Frasca said the results are especially significant in light of the fact it is estimated that one-third of all children are eating fast food on a daily basis.

One of the important aspects of this healthy children’s menu, Anzman-Frasca points out, is that healthier side options automatically came with the children’s meals. It completely eliminated any mention of french fries or soda.

That’s important, Anzman-Frasca says, because other studies have repeatedly shown that people who are faced with a choice tend to pick the default option — in a restaurant setting this has traditionally been, for example, a hamburger automatically bundled with a fried side dish and a sugary drink.

“But on this menu, those options weren’t there,” she says. The restaurant would provide them if diners asked, but they weren’t listed on the menu.

The foods selected for the menu were determined to be healthy according to nutrition standards from the National Restaurant Association’s Kids LiveWell Program.   

As a researcher in the Division of Behavioral Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics, Anzman-Frasca continues to study what aspects of menus might be most effective in getting children to try healthier options.

Her work at UB involves laboratory-based research, and future collaborations with local restaurants are also planned.

Anzman-Frasca is lead author of “Orders of Healthier Children’s Items Remain High More Than Two Years After Menu Changes at a Regional Restaurant Chain,” published Nov. 2, 2015 in Health Affairs.

The research was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The JPB Foundation.

Anzman-Frasca, who became a UB faculty member in 2015, conducted the research while a post-doctoral research associate at ChildObesity180 in the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University.

Co-authors with Anzman-Frasca on the paper are Christina D. Economos, Linda Harelick, Vanessa M. Lynskey and Megan P. Mueller, all of Tufts University.