Dieticians teaching kids about the pitfalls of a fast food lifestyle

• Tonight, when you and the family sit down to dinner, nutrition experts want you to take a really good look at what's on those plates.
• "The typical American portion is not a serving size," says Katie Bogue.
• program, that aims to teach children 9 to 11 about the importance of eating at least five servings of fruits and vegetables a day and being physically active every day.
• Bogue is part of the army of health professionals fighting the alarming increase in obesity among adults and children.
• At the heart of the problem is not only what those adults and children eat, but how incredibly much they eat.
• For example, if you order a pasta entree at your favorite restaurant, you just assume it's a serving.
• Kids' meals generally provide the right amount of food, but be careful of what you order.
• In the Pesky Kids Meal (top photo), one of several at Rubio's, a fish taco with rice and a churro has 460 calories, 185 from fat.
• Now, if your child chose the bean and cheese burrito instead of the fish taco, and chips instead of rice, that meal jumps to 860 calories, 325 from fat.
• "The typical pasta plate contains four to six servings of grains," says Bogue.
• Sitting at the lunch table with her girlfriends at Mount Vernon Elementary School in Spring Valley, Victoria pointed out that an all-you-can-eat meal is a great deal, but not a great idea.
• Children learn otherwise about serving sizes outside of school meals, given the huge portion sizes of snack foods, large quantities served at home, and provided in many restaurants."
• And Bogue and McKay both say that working with the kids at schools is often the best way to get the message to them, and to their parents.