Long Beach leaders on Tuesday will consider requiring restaurants to serve healthy beverages – milk, water or juice drinks under 60 calories – as the “default” choice with kids’ meals.

Citing rising child obesity rates, Councilwoman Jeannine Pearce authored the item, with support from councilmembers Lena Gonzalez, Dee Andrews and Roberto Uranga.

“The purpose of this policy is to reduce the number of sugary beverages Long Beach children consume at restaurants,” Pearce wrote in a staff report on the item.

The item asks City Attorney Charles Parkin and the Department of Health and Human Services to draft an ordinance requiring restaurants to make the menu changes. Pearce’s Chief of Staff Christian Kropff said that their office has been considering the idea for a while since many businesses like McDonald’s and Subway already offer healthy drinks for kids automatically.

The item does not prohibit serving soda or other beverages to kids, just that the default drink that comes with kids’ meals and shown on the menu is one of the three healthier options.

“A lot of kids when they see pictures, they say, ‘I want that, I want that,’” Kropff said. “They just want whatever’s on the picture most of the time, so we want them to want the milk and build healthy habits for the rest of their lives.”

According to the staff report, the ordinance would affect roughly 200 of the 1,300 restaurants in Long Beach, including fast food chains and some locally-owned restaurants. Kropff noted that Jack in the Box and Lola’s Mexican Cuisine are a few of the restaurants that will be affected.

Luis Navarro, owner of Lola’s, said he is supportive of the measure – though he added that “ultimately, it’s up to the parents to make the decision.”

With kids’ meals, his restaurant gives the option of an agua fresca or a milk, although if the ordinance were to be established, the default drink will become milk. Parents and kids can still choose the fruit drink if they want it.

Navarro said his restaurant already tries to go the healthier route with its whole menu, like using olive oil instead of lard for cooking and serving bottled soda rather than having fountain drinks with unlimited refills.

If businesses want to opt out of the local law, they would have to “unbundle” their kids’ meals and offer the drinks separately, Kropff said.

“We’re not saying that you can’t sell soda or restaurants can’t sell soda to kids,” he said.

Roughly 40 percent of children in Long Beach are overweight or obese, and nearly half of Long Beach fifth graders are obese, according to the staff report included in the City Council agenda. Sugary drinks are one of the biggest culprits in the risk of childhood obesity, it said.

According to a recent study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 18.5 percent of children in the United States and about 40 percent of adults are obese.

The ordinance will be enforced with administrative citations by the city Health Department.

The City Council meets at 5 p.m. Tuesday in Council Chambers, 333 W. Ocean Blvd.