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Fruit Doesn’t Need Fizz!

June 09th, 2008 | Category: Nutrition

I wasn’t happy when I found this story in my local newspaper.

Carbonation Gives Fruit A Fizz

Twenty Connecticut school districts (where I happen to live) are pushing a new Fizzy Fruit product to our children.  As stated within the story above, Fizzy Fruit are pieces of apples, oranges, and grapes that have been pumped with carbonation to give them a soda taste.  The food management contractor (Sodexho) who added these snacks to the menu hopes that “it will turn kids on to fruit.”

How did kids ever become turned off to fruit in the first place?  My son is 2 years old.  If you lined up 10 different foods, he’ll go for the fresh fruit every time.  In his eyes, fruits such as strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and grapes are treats.  There is no need to add carbonation to a fruit that is already a treat.

Go look at the junk food at your local grocery store.  Many of the sweets are fruit flavored.  Why do you think the food manufacturers choose fruit flavors?  Simple answer, fruit tastes good (so the kids will like it) and seeing fruit in the label fools many parents into believing the snacks are healthy.  Unfortunately, most of these fruit snacks are everything but healthy.  Need an example?  No problem…

Indiana Jones Fruit Snacks

Let’s look at the ingredients:

CORN SYRUP, SUGAR, APPLE PUREE CONCENTRATE, WATER, MODIFIED CORN STARCH, GELATIN, CONTAINS TWO PERCENT OR LESS OF CITRIC ACID, ASCORBIC ACID (VITAMIN C), NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, COLOR ADDED, COCONUT OIL, CARNAUBA WAX, YELLOW #5, RED #40, SODIUM CITRATE, BLUE #1.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that this snack is everything but natural.

Where do our kids go wrong?  Why do we need to fool them with soda?  Why are kids drinking soda anyway?  Who buys the soda for these kids?  Why don’t parents start leading from the front?  Who does the shopping?  Who makes the decisions?

My wife is involved with two mother’s groups with area kids.  We’ve had several play groups in the last two years.  All of the kids love fruit.  The fruit platters never last long.  It’s clear in my eyes that kids are naturally inclined to enjoy eating fresh fruit.  Fresh fruit is a treat.  Kids shouldn’t need to be fooled back into eating fruit.  We as parents should be providing fresh fruit all along.     

There is no soda in my home.  Fresh fruit is a snack.  It’s a treat for me, and it’s a treat for my son.  My son has a long way to go before he’s doing his own grocery shopping.  There won’t be any soda treats in this house.

It’s one thing to ignore sound nutritional advice when you are stuffing your own face, but it’s irresponsible when you do this to your own kids.  No one is born with knowledge.  Responsible parents need to make some time to learn the facts about sound nutrition.

I didn’t know anything about being a parent before my son was born.  I read everything that I could however to learn as much as I could beforehand.  The information is there if you take the time to look.  The “I’m too busy” excuse is beyond old.  News flash, we are all busy in today’s world.  When it comes to raising our children, busy doesn’t cut it.

Ross