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No Fruit in Many Fruit-Labeled Kid's Foods
MARY ENGEL LOS ANGELES TIMES
Posted Feb 6, 2007
About half of the most aggressively marketed children's food with
pictures or names of fruit on the packaging contains no fruit at
all, according to a report to be released Friday at the 2007
California Childhood Obesity Conference in Anaheim.
Some of the least nutritious products were cereal and yogurt,
said lead author Leslie Mikkelsen, a dietitian for Prevention
Institute, an Oakland, Calif.-based nonprofit that promotes
community-based health and safety programs.
She pointed to a box of Berry Berry Kix that showed a spoonful of
cereal with what at least looked like raspberries and blueberries.
"Parents do think cereals are a good way to start the day,"
Mikkelsen said, "and they look at this one and (think) it has the
goodness of fruit."
But, said Mikkelsen, pointing to the ingredients listed on the
box, "all that's in there is red dye and blue dye."
Similarly, Yoplait Go-Gurt Strawberry Splash yogurt contained no
strawberries. General Mills, the maker of the cereal and the yogurt,
declined to comment, saying the company had not seen the report.
Of the 37 products examined, 19 contained no fruit ingredients
and six had only minimal amounts of fruit juice. Two contained 100
percent fruit juice, and 10 contained actual whole fruits, which
have less sugar and more fiber and nutrients than juice alone.
"Today's parents are looking for healthier products for their
children, but the food industry isn't making it easy for them,"
Mikkelsen said.
The six-page report, "Where's the Juice? Fruit Content of the
Most Highly Advertised Children's Food and Beverages," was sponsored
by the Strategic Alliance for Health Food and Activity Environments,
a coalition of public health and nutrition organizations.
For this report, the researchers used data from a recent Kaiser
Family Foundation study to identify the top-spending food
advertisers on children's television programs.
The report excluded fast-food advertisers and concentrated on 37
items that could be bought in grocery stores and that showed
pictures of fruit or used the words "fruit" or "fruity" on the
packaging.
But, she said, parents have different expectations of fruit
"flavored" drinks, which often contain less than 10 percent juice.
"I really don't think a lay person knows that fruit drink doesn't
mean fruit juice, especially if it has these beautiful pictures of
fruit on it," Mikkelsen said.
Even drinks that contain 100 percent juice don't match the fiber
and nutrients of whole fruit, said Mikkelsen, and are highly
concentrated sources of fructose, a sugar.
© 2007 Charleston Daily Mail. via ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved
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