BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- Studies show that 25 percent of young children eat fast food on a daily basis -- so fighting the epidemic of childhood obesity requires both eating less fast food and making smarter choices for kids in fast food restaurants.

One way to help parents is to tell them up front about the calories and nutrition in fast food.

At the Seattle Children's Research Institute, researchers asked 99 parents of young children to select a McDonald's meal for their kids based on picture menus -- but only half the menus contained nutritional and calorie values for each food.

With the added information, parents could see that a hamburger contains 250 calories while a Big Mac has more than twice that amount. And for dessert -- compare the 160 calories in a fruit and yogurt parfait to the 560 calories contained in a McFlurry ice cream.

Parents who knew the nutritional values selected meals for their kids that had 102 fewer calories overall -- a difference that can quickly add up if children eat out multiple times per week.