Since mid-February, the Burger-King fast food chain has withdrawn sodas from children’s menus in the United States, to promote more balanced and healthier choices. This decision announced this Tuesday, March 10 follows the direction taken by other chains of fast food competing earlier in the year, such as McDonald’s and Wendy’s.
Now, children are offered skimmed milk, low-fat, low-sugar chocolate flavored milk, and apple juice. Exit the fountains distributing coca-cola and other sodas at will, make way for a lower calorie diet. Soft drinks and others sugary drinks are indeed the main source of calories in children’s diets. In the United States, the percentage of children aged 6 to 11 suffering from obesity increased from 7% in 1980 to 12% in 2012. Among adolescents (12-19 years), it rose from 5 to 21 % over the same period, depending on Center for disease control and prevention.
One in three obese or overweight children in the United States
The Momsrising association, which had already fought for restaurant chains to stop offering too sweet drinks to children, welcomed this decision, indicating that “more restaurants should do the same because sugary drinks only promote heart disease and type 2 diabetes. “
Obesity, for which too much sugar consumption is considered to be largely responsible, is a scourge of public health in the United States, where two in three adults and one in three children are obese or overweight.
In early March, the World Health Organization (WHO) had also called for reducing the ration of fast sugars to a maximum of 10% daily energy intake, equivalent to 50g of sugar per day in an adult (approximately 12 teaspoons). According to the American Heart Association, Americans consume an average of 22 to 30 tablespoons.
For now, Burger King’s decision has only taken effect in the United States. The chain did not say whether it intended to extend this measure to other countries in the coming months.
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