CHILDREN'S fast food meals vastly exceed the amount of energy,
salt, sugar and saturated fat children should eat in one meal,
according to a damning report from the Cancer Council NSW. The
Fast Food: Exposing the Truth report showed an urgent need to
reduce the amount of energy and unhealthy ingredients in fast
food meals, the council said. Its nutrition and program manager,
Clare Hughes, said Australians on average spend about a third of
their food budget on fast and takeaway food. "If we are serious
about addressing the issue of overweight, obesity and chronic
disease in Australia we have to be realistic and say people are
eating out of home … so if we can make these unhealthy choices a
bit healthier that might make a difference". But the Australian
Food and Grocery Council has criticised the report, saying it
relies on out-of-date information and selective benchmarks. The
report analysed 199 different children's meal combinations from
six major fast food outlets, finding at worst they contained
more than a