Parents, beware: These kid-friendly foods claim to be healthy, but they're not…
http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/parenting/parents-beware-these-kid-friendly-foods-claim-to-be-healthy-but-theyre-not-2442425/
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Think cereals, fruit drinks, and soups are healthy choices for your kids?
Think again.
A new study by the Prevention Institute shows that claims printed on the front of kid-friendly foods are
often misleading. A whopping 84 percent of products tested, from breakfast cereals and granola bars to
canned and frozen meals, didn't even meet basic nutritional standards—in spite of official-looking labels
and promises of added vitamins, minerals, and fiber.
The labels aren't necessarily lying. A high-sugar product may also be low in fat, but that doesn't make it
good for you; ditto cereals that promise whole grains but also pack plenty of artificial colors or flavorings.
At a time when a third of U.S. children are obese or at risk of becoming obese, labels that don't tell the
whole nutritional story are a major problem.
The researchers took a closer look at the nutritional information for 58 kid-friendly foods that had been
deemed healthy by the Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative, a project launched by the
Better Business Bureaus in 2006. The picks included household staples like Skippy peanut butter,
flavored versions of Cheerios cereal, plain Rice Krispies, Chef Boyardee classics, Danimals yogurts, and
several Campbell's condensed soups. (You can check out the entire list here.) They examined each
product's sodium, fiber, fat, and sugar content, calculated the amount of calories that came from sugars,
fat, and saturated fat, and double checked the ingredients against the guidelines established by the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services.
The results? Forty-nine of the 58 products failed the test.
To qualify as healthy, foods had to get less than 35 percent of their total calories from fat, less than 10
percent of them from saturated fat, and less than 25 percent of them from sugar, contain at least 1.25
grams of fiber per serving, and contain less than 480 milligrams of sodium per serving (600 milligrams for
meals). Drinks were exempt from the fiber requirement, and products with nuts got a pass on fats. Even
so, the bottom line is pretty bad.
The 58 foods in the Prevention Insitute Study. Photo from preventioninstitute.org
Ninety-five percent of the products contained added sugar. More than half (53 percent) were too low in
fiber. Nearly a quarter of the prepared foods were high in saturated fats, and 36 percent of them were
high in sodium. Twenty-one percent contained artificial coloring, which has no nutritional benefit and
some potentially harmful side effects. Fifty-three percent of the products had no fruits or vegetables; of
those that did, the most common vegetables were tomatoes and corn (which, technically, is a high-carb
grain, not a veggie).
The worst offenders were Apple Jacks cereal, Betty Crocker's Dora the Explorer fruit snacks, Campbell's
Spaghetti-Os plus calcium, Kid Cuisine All-Star Chicken Breast Nuggets, and Capri Sun Sunrise drinks.
"Based on their nutrition profile and ingredient lists, many packaged foods should actually be viewed by
parents as treats for their kids," says Brierley Wright, M.S., R.D., the nutrition editor for EatingWell
Magazine. "Treats are OK. I’m not saying parents shouldn’t offer kids treats or desserts. It’s just that they
should be offered and eaten in moderation."
Front-of-the-package labeling is not regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Since each
manufacturer sets its own standards for what's printed on the front of the bag or box, claims of "low fat"
and "high fiber" may seem great, but can actually hide nutritional shortcomings.
"Take, for example, granola bars," Wright says. "They seem like a healthy snack—and some are—but
there are also granola bars out there that from a nutrition standpoint aren’t all that different from a candy
bar."
So what should you buy instead? Wright suggests seeking out "whole foods" like applesauce, carrot
sticks, cheese sticks, dried fruits, and nuts (if your child's school allows them). Just be sure to check out
the nutritional panel on the back instead of relying on claims printed on the front. "Remember that 'sugars'
on the Nutrition Facts Panel includes both natural sugar and added sugar," she points out, "but you can
still compare total sugar content from, say, one yogurt to the next."
In case you're wondering, the nine products that lived up to their healthy claims were:
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Capri Sun 100 Percent Juice Fruit Punch
Kid Cuisine Bug Safari Chicken Breast Nuggets
Kid Cuisine Karate Chop Chicken Sandwich
Kid Cuisine Campfire Hot Dog
Kid Cuisine Pop Star Popcorn Chicken
Kid Cuisine Magical Cheese Stuffed Crust Pizza
Quaker Chewy Granola Bars (25 percent less sugar Chocolate Chip only)
Kool Aid Fun Fizz Drink Drops (Giggling Grape only)
Campbell's Princess-Shaped Spaghetti-Os.
Journal: How much attention do you pay to what is in the food you eat. Do you think that contents
make a difference? What drives your decision when you make choices to eat something…..taste,
nutrition, availability, what my parents think…….