Ever wondered how kids meals compare nutritionally between McDonalds, Burger King and KFC. I have. Here’s what I found…

Introductory Comment

This little experiment isn’t intended to show any one brand up, rather it was to satisfy my own curiosity. It’s worth noting that there are hundreds of combinations available which I haven’t compared, instead choosing a small selection of popular combinations that I would likely choose. There are other combinations that will be more healthy and unhealthy than those I have shown. All fries are unsalted.

McDonalds

Happy Meal including Chicken Nuggets, Fries and Fruit Shoot
Calories 420
Fat 21g
Salt 1.2g

Comment: A pleasant surprise really, the calorific value is reasonable (around a quarter of a child’s daily allowance). The amount of salt in this meal was the second highest out of the 6 combos.

Happy Meal including Hamburger, Fries and Coke
Calories 590
Fat 20g
Salt 1.8g

Comment: Calorific value much higher here, mainly due to the coke. Salt was by far the highest of all selections.

KFC

Kids Meal including Fillet Burger, Fries, Fruit Shoot & Yoghurt
Calories 587
Fat 20.8g
Salt 0.8g

Comment: The second highest for calories, but quite a low salt value. Includes desert which other combos do not.

Kids Meal including Chicken Strips, Corn, Fruit Shoot & Yoghurt
Calories 479
Fat 23.2g
Salt 0.9g

Comment: Calorific value is relatively low but this meal has the seond highest fat content. Lower in salt than other combos. Includes desert which other combos do not.

Burger King

Kids Meal including Hamburger, Fries and Diet Coke
Calories 520
Fat 25g
Salt 0.8g

Comment: Very high fat content and calorific value over 500. Salt is relatively low

Kids Meal including Chicken Tenders, Fries and Coke
Calories 510
Fat 23g
Salt 0.97g

Comment: Middle of the road in calories but quite high in fat.

Conclusion

Burger King does badly for fat content. McDonalds performs poorly for salt and choose the wrong combo from KFC and consume nearly 600 calories. My favourite combination was the KFC chicken, corn, fruit shoot and yoghurt meal. Its quite high in fat but includes a vegetable, protein and dairy for maximum variety and it has the yoghurt providing a desert. I was surprised how evenly each brand performed overall. The biggest alarm bells rang when I saw how much full sugar carbonated drink added to the values.

What do you think?

McDonalds photo by flickr user noodlepie
KFC photo by flickr user viZZZual.com
Burger King photo by flickr user paranoias80