Congratulations on trying to make sure your son eats a variety of vegetables and fruit every day.Canada's Food Guide recommends children aged four to eight years eat five servings of vegetables and fruit daily.

 However,many children do not meet their daily recommended intakes of fruit and vegetables. Instead, they fill up on excess calories in the form of sugar and fat. In fact, the 2004 Canadian Community Health Survey found that approximately 70% of children aged four to eight years do not eat the recommended five servings of vegetables and fruit each day. It is important for children to eat enough vegetables and fruit to make sure they get enough of the vitamins, minerals, and fibre they need to grow and develop.

Like you, many parents are concerned with what their children eat so they look for healthy, tasty, affordable choices. However, knowing what a good choice is can be very confusing and grocery shopping today can be overwhelming.  Consumers have never had so much choice and selection.  In addition, messages and pictures on products can be misleading.  For example, The Prevention Institute (2007) found that parents perceived many food products associated with fruit as healthier choices because of the pictures or wording in the product name or packaging.  Yet, when the ingredients were investigated, less than 30% of the products studied actually contained fruit, and over 50% contained no fruit at all!  Furthermore, most of the products studied (cereals, fruit snacks, beverages) also contained at least two forms of added sugar, which could contribute to excess calories and possibly weight gain. Despite marketing themselves as healthier options, most “fruity” snack foods do not provide the nutritional benefits of whole fruit.

When deciding which “fruity” snack foods are healthy, look at more than just the packaging and the name of the product. Be sure to read the Nutrition Facts panel and the Ingredient List and follow these suggestions:

• Choose whole fruit and vegetables most often than fruit leathers, fruit gummies, and fruity snacks to meet recommendations in Canada’s Food Guide. Whole fruit is a great, quick, easy, and affordable snack.
• Look for cereals that provide at least 4 grams of fibre per serving. This often indicates a cereal that is lower in sugar.   
• Look for added sugar. Ingredients such as sugar, fructose, corn syrup, or any word ending in “ose” mean that sugar has been added to the product, which adds extra calories.
• Choose 100% juice or water as a beverage.  Fruit punches, drinks, and beverages are not the same as 100% fruit juice and contain mostly sugar.  A small amount of 100% fruit juice is okay, but kids can drink too much juice, which leaves them too full to eat other nutritious foods.   

Written by Heather Harvey, RD as published in the Windsor Star, April 2007.