Parents making healthier choices in children's snacks
USA Today
Parents are beginning to clean up their nutrition acts when it comes to the snacks they serve their young children, new data show.
Fruit is the most common snack for kids under 6, with cookies second. In 1987, cookies ruled and fruit ranked second, according to findings from the NPD Group, a market research firm. And kids today:
"Moms generally feed their children similar foods to what they were given as children, but they are starting to make subtle changes," says NPD's Harry Balzer. "Slowly, mom is saying, 'I'm not giving my kids soft drinks and cookies as much as I was given them as a child.' "
The NPD Group, which tracks national eating trends, bases the data on food and beverage journals from 500 moms in 1985-1987 and 600 in 2005-2007. The moms kept diaries for 14 days on everything their kids consumed.
Parents seem to be serving healthier products, which may partly explain why the number of overweight children is holding steady, Balzer says.
Government data show 32 percent of children and teens ages 2 to 19 — about 23 million — were overweight or obese in 2003-2006 compared with 29 percent in 1999. The increase is not considered statistically significant.
