by All good parents want their children to do right. We work to make sure they have good friends, supervise schoolwork and extracurricular activities, and do our best to make sure they are eating a balanced diet.
But that doesn’t mean we don’t have a range of shortcomings such as not putting them to bed early enough, letting them spend a little too much time in front of the TV or their iPad, and, perhaps often, choose convenience. over nutrition when it comes to what they eat.
Sometimes we even think about something that they don’t want so much yesfor example when we turn to fruit snacks as a “healthy” snack option.
What is a fruit snack?
Fruit snacks are gelatinous snacks with added fruit flavoring, puree, juice or concentrate and many other ingredients that are sometimes molded together to resemble the shapes of common fruits such as oranges, strawberries, raspberries or grapes.
“They are usually produced by mixing fruit ingredients with sugar and other additives, and then they are cooked, shaped, and packaged,” says Lisa Young, registered dietitian, assistant professor of nutrition at New York University and author of “At Last Whole, At Last Slim.”
Shelley Rael, a registered dietitian and nutritionist based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, says that some fruit snack brands have fewer ingredients, such as fruit puree or concentrate and some ascorbic acid (to keep the product from browning), as well like with added sweeteners. “But other brands have multiple ingredients, including thickeners like gelatin or starch, added flavors, and dyes to make the color more prominent,” she explains.
Are fruit snacks healthy?
No matter how many ingredients are in your favorite brand of fruit snacks, calling them a “health food” would be a stretch, says Barbara Olendzki, associate professor of population and quantitative health sciences at the UMass Chan School of Medicine. “They should be thought of as candy,” she says, since fruit snacks don’t contain the water, natural fiber, or vitamins and minerals of real fruit. She also says that labeling them as healthy is a big concern for children, because they need the nutrition full results grow and resist sickness and disease.”
That doesn’t mean some types of fruit snacks aren’t healthier than others. “Varieties labeled as 100% fruit. possible be healthier, but it’s critical to check the ingredients label and nutrition facts,” says Young. Ditto for vitamin- and mineral-fortified types of fruit snacks.
Even in such cases, however, “the processing of these food strips strips fruit of much of the beneficial fiber, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants found in whole fruit,” says Dr Uma Naidoo, director of nutritional psychiatry and lifestyle at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Harvard-trained nutritional psychiatrist behind “Calm Your Mind with Food.”
Rael agrees, saying that even among the “healthiest” fruit snack brands, the treat “can be a dense form of calories without the nutrients found in whole fruit.” In illustrating this, consider that just 15 pieces of strawberry fruit snacks are 90 calories, and it takes 40 individual strawberries to reach the same number of calories – and the whole fruit selection also provides calcium, iron, vitamin B6 , vitamin A, phosphorus, niacin. , and plenty of vitamin C, folate, protein and fiber.
“Fruit snacks are commonly seen as healthy because their name tricks people into thinking they are eating fruit in some form, but often the added fruit is not from whole fruit, but from fruit juice that is laden with sugar instead,” says Naidoo.
Are fruit snacks high in sugar?
In fact, some fruit snacks are so high in sugar that one report suggests that the 11 grams (3 teaspoons) of sugar found in one brand of fruit snack flavor means that nearly half of every bite consumed is pure sugar. In comparison, one serving of gummy bears has 14 grams of sugar.
Young points out that the harms of eating too much sugar in the form of fruit snacks “and the sticky sugars getting stuck in the teeth,” weight gain and reduced energy levels can lead to dental problems. “Consuming too much sugar can affect the overall health of anyone but is of particular concern for children, who are more prone to cavities and may consume these snacks in large quantities,” she says. .
In fact, Naidoo warns that the high sugar content in fruit snacks “is known to be addictive, so it’s quite easy to eat fruit snacks and keep wanting them.” She also says that eating too much puts a person’s stomach microbiome at risk, “because bad bugs thrive on sugar and many of the other artificial ingredients in fruit snacks.” She says this “can lead to many inflammatory issues such as fatigue, mood swings, stress, depression and cognitive decline with age.”
Like any food though, the size of fruit snacks consumed are the most important, so there is no need to avoid them altogether, nutritionists say. “Fruit snacks can be acceptable on-the-go snacks if they are made with 100% fruit, but they can be no more than fruit-flavored snack gummies, which are just candy with a health halo or health label, ” said Rael. “Sometimes people see the word ‘results’ and think healthy without checking the details.”
