Thursday, November 18, 2010

Informed Eating for Kids

This little nugget found me today, and surely I can take a moment to share.  As is well known to my university peers and many others, my passion is point of purchase food and beverage information which informs eating and MAY lead to healthy food choices.

The concern is how to choose the healthier food without knowing the difference between food A or B.  There is a lot more to be said about informed eating - the education piece is vital, for instance.  With regard to dining out, I am a believer in menu information.

I met my NC sister at Border's Books today - in the cafe.  I noticed a pamphlet on the counter.  The title was Kids Beverages.  Sweet!  No really ... sweet.  Ha ha.

There are nine beverages offered and all have 10 ounces except the Cocoa Trio which has 8.
The drink with the lowest amount of sugar, by grams had 14 and the highest - brace yourself - 58!  Fifty eight grams of sugar in a ten ounce drink.  The calorie range for these drinks is 60 to 370 with most being in the 200s. 

Don't you even think to say that kids don't need to be mindful of empty calories - 20% of our children are overweight and a staggering 10 percent of preschoolers are obese - 2-5 year olds.  How can that even be possible.  An obese three year old?  In case you are curious, the rate of obesity in the 2- 19 year old group is about 16% and the overweight rate is 30%.  Want to read more?  A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association is available here.

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