ArticleJournal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics2025
A Natural Experiment to Evaluate Changes in Kids' Meal Beverages in Fast-Food Restaurants Following a Healthy Default Policy, 2019-2022.
Article in Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- The New Orleans Healthy Default Beverage Policy and Beverage Ordering Among Children.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- Policy on Paper compared with Policy in Practice: A Study of Healthy Default Beverage Implementation and Enforcement in the United States.Current developments in nutrition · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundJurisdictions have implemented "healthy beverage policies" requiring restaurants to make lower-sugar beverages the default option listed on kids' menus to improve the nutrition of restaurant offerings for children.
objectiveThe aim of this study was to compare changes in beverage offerings in kids' meals written on menu boards within chain restaurants before and after policy implementation in intervention and comparison communities.
designThis was a quasi-experimental study with comparison using photograph and audit observations at restaurants from October 2019 to June 2022. PARTICIPANTS/
settingForty-three restaurants in 3 fast-food chains serving kids' meals with a beverage that did not make lower-sugar beverages the default option at baseline in 2 intervention communities (New York, New York, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) and 1 comparison community (Newark, New Jersey) were included.
interventionPolicies that require only healthier beverages as default options are written on kids' meal menus.
main outcome measuresBeverage options listed in the kids' meal on the menu board were allowable under healthy beverage policies. STATISTICAL ANALYSES PERFORMED: Descriptive and repeated measures analyses were performed for difference in primary outcome from baseline to follow-up overall and by policy status.
resultsAt follow-up, 39 locations (91%), including 8 (89%) in the comparison area with no healthy default policy, listed only beverages allowable as defaults under healthy beverage policies (P < .001 vs baseline, all locations). From baseline to follow-up, 2 chains changed the beverages listed with the kids' meal to align with the healthy default policies in all but 1 location, and 1 chain made no menu changes (P < .001). No statistically significant differences in menu changes were observed between intervention and comparison areas.
conclusionsAfter healthy beverage policies were enacted in 2 of 3 communities, most locations in 2 restaurant chains listed only allowable beverages regardless of location outside of cities where the policies were in place. Regional implementation in response to new local healthy default policies may result in broader accessibility of healthier children's beverage options.
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Registered trials
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