There’s the concern over transfat, and the concern over additives and preservatives in fast food meals in general. You’ve probably thought to yourself that that once in a while treat can’t hurt. And they’re so tiny in portions, at least you won’t have to worry about calories? Well, you can add shockingly high calories to the negatives attributed to kiddie fast food meals.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest, the same organization that made unsavory revelations for Chinese takeout and movie popcorn, has revealed the following for kid’s meals in KFC, Taco Bell, Sonic, Jack in the Box, and (my favorite!) Chick-fil-A and eight others:

• 90 % have far more than a meal’s worth of calories.
• Most are loaded with fat and salt too.
• 93% exceed 430 calories per meal, which is the most a child 4-8 should eat in a day.
• Some meals have as much as 1200 calories!
• Subway had the best rating, with 33% of its kids meals exceediing 430 calories.

Said Margo Wootan, CSPI nutrition director

“Most of these kids’ meals appear to be designed to put America’s children on the fast track to obesity, disability, heart attack, or diabetes.”

Harsh words, but parents should heed it. If you’re planning on treating your kids to a fast food meal this weekend, inspect and critique the menu, and maybe go to Subway.

Responding to the call of a pregnancy craving can be sublimely satisfying. Pregnancy cravings can be weird and wild and strike at very random times. I craved cabbage – and I HATE cabbage – but it tasted awesome for about 14 seconds in my fourth month. There’s almost nothing better than ripping open the packet of the random food you just had to have, within seconds of paying for it at the supermarket, and chowing your jerky/watermelon/bottle of ketchup/whatever in your car. Sound familiar?

The results of a non-scientific study among my mom friends indicates Burger King cravings are extremely common during pregnancy, followed by Taco Bell, with onion rings and chicken wings also ranking highly as junk food must-haves. And I was no exception – I wanted burgers and fries and milkshakes (which had to be strawberry, or else!) a little too often during my second trimester.

Here’s a little something that might help tempering those cravings:

A study from the United Kingdom discovered that rats who ate diets high in sugar, fat and salt had heavier babies, who were more prone to obesity during their lives. The baby rats born to moms who ate a junk food diet were more likely to be overweight even if they were fed healthy diets.

Remember this is a rat study, not in humans. But it stands to reason that an all-junk-food diet isn’t going to do you or your baby any good, just as it won’t do non-pregnant folk any good.

So I think that bottom line is to do your best to eat healthly while pregnant, but the occasional Whopper or burrito or cupcake probably isn’t going to do you any harm. Chow on, mama!