How Healthy Are Your Kids' 'Healthy' Snacks?

Fruit cups, 100 percent fruit juice, apple sauce, and Sun Chips — but how healthy are they?
Fruit cups, 100 percent fruit juice, apple sauce, and Sun Chips — but how healthy are they?


Kids are snacking more than ever, and when parents consider the nutritional content of those munchies, they should be wary of more than just the usual junk food suspects. A 2010 study of 31,000 kids, published in the Health Affairs journal, warned that school-aged children are eating an unprecedented number of snacks, and that those nibbles contribute to the growing waistlines of American youth. A stunning 98 percent of kids aged 2 to 18 snack between meals, and those mini-repasts now account for 27 percent of a child's daily caloric intake.

Click here for How Healthy are Your Kids' 'Healthy' Snacks? Slideshow


Unfortunately, fresh fruits and veggies are hardly the noshes of choice. Since 1977, snacks have added an average of 168 extra calories to a child's daily intake, and according to this study, most of those are derived from sugary treats, salty chips, and sweetened beverages.

Click here to see What's Really in Your Favorite Snacks?

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© iStock_RBFried

Snacking might be built into a child's routine, but parents convinced they've stocked the kitchen with healthy options should rethink some of their choices. Food companies are notorious for marketing their fun sides to kids - spending upwards of $2 billion to do so each year - and their nutritious sides to mom and dad. Often, their health hype is just that.



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A 2007 study by the Prevention Institute found that more than half of children's products that advertised fruit on the packaging contained no fruit at all. And a 2011 report from the same institute warned that 84 percent of products marketed as "healthier products" didn't even meet federal dietary guidelines.

So before you hit the grocery aisles, check out this roundup of some of the worst offenders: Snacks that lull parents into a phony sense of dietary discernment, while filling kids up with empty calories, saturated fats, and mystery ingredients.


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© itemmaster.com

Frigo Cheese Heads String Cheese
These "wholesome and easy" peelable snacks might seem like a good way to add calcium and protein into your tot's diet, but they're heavily processed and include several different cheeses mixed with a bevy of additives. And with 200 milligrams of sodium, one stick is 10 percent of a 9-year-old's daily sodium intake.




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© vintagelexyblogspot.com

Del Monte Cherry Mixed Fruit Cups
Those ruby-red cherries? They're actually colored with carmine, an additive derived from crushed, boiled beetles that's also a little-known allergen. If that's not enough to deter you, consider that a four-ounce fruit cup represents merely 38 percent of an actual serving of fruit.




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© itemmaster.com

Pepperidge Farm Goldfish Crackers
They're grinning, but Goldfish crackers don't offer much nutrition news to smile about. Primarily made of refined flour, oil, and sugar, they offer a mere one gram of the fiber your kids need (and probably don't get enough of). And that addictive quality? Courtesy of autolyzed yeast, better known as MSG.




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© abetterbagofgroceries.com

Mott's Single-Serving Apple Sauce
All the fruit flavor, none of the nutrition. The second ingredient in these purées is high-fructose corn syrup, and while a single apple contains a bevy of nutrients - 4 grams of fiber, polyphenols, and vitamin C - their saucy peer contains absolutely none. The reason? An apple's nutrition is all in the skin.




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© itemmaster.com

Quaker Flavored Rice Cakes
An adult diet mainstay, rice cakes now come in flavors like Chocolate Crunch. Too bad the cakes contain only rice, sugar, corn, and additives. They're so short on substance - almost no protein, fiber, or fat - that putting them in a lunchbox will have kids running to the vending machine for snack number two.




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© itemmaster.com

Frito-Lay Sun Chips
With the slogan "Healthier Planet, Healthier You," it might surprise that these chips are made by the company behind Lay's and Doritos. Sun Chips contain 140 calories per meager 11-chip serving, and the same additives that make real chips so addictive. Good luck limiting kids to just one portion.




Click here to see 4 More 'Healthy' Snacks

- Katie Drummond, The Daily Meal

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