Surprising Healthy And Unhealthy Foods For Kids

Interesting Health Facts For Some Of The Foods Your Kids Love

Jun 2, 2009

From fruit juice to chewing gum to ketchup, foods you may have thought were unhealthy for your kids can actually be good, and vice versa.

Parents struggle with making healthy choices for their children. Here are some foods you may be confused about as to whether or not they are really good for your kids.

Juice seems like a healthy drink to give your children, and while it has some benefits, it also has negative effects as well. The over use of juice prompted the American Academy of Pediatrics to release a policy statement on the use and misuse of juice back in 2001 and reaffirmed in 2007. The issue is that sweetened fruit juice has almost as much sugar as pop.

For example, an 8 oz glass of apple juice has about 26 grams of sugar. Sugar is a problem for many reasons including cavities and tooth decay, diarrhea, and possibly the onset of obesity. If you want your children to drink fruit juice, the best types are ones that state 100% fruit juice, and try to give your kids no more than a glass a day. Plus, any juice you give your children has to be pasteurized. Unpasteurized fruit or vegetable juice is very dangerous and can cause botulism, which is deadly in children.

Store bought apple sauce has a similar problem to fruit juice. If it is sweetened, it can have as much as 22 grams of sugar in one cup. It is recommended that no more than 10% of a child’s daily calorie intake should come from sugar. Most kids ages 4 to 8 will consume 1,000 to 1,500 calories a day, which equates to about 100 to 150 calories of sugar or 25 to 37 grams of sugar. So one serving of applesauce could use up their entire daily allowance of sugar. Even if it is unsweetened, apples are one of the most pesticide ridden crops. Therefore, you can do one of two things – buy unsweetened organic applesauce or make your own from organic apples.

Peanuts naturally contain a mold called aspergillus flavus which releases aflatoxin, a known carcinogen. Studies have shown that long-term exposure to aflatoxin has been linked to an increased occurrence of liver cancer. The roasting process does not kill the mold and it continues to grow over time. The longer the mold grows (which is not visible to the eye), the more aflatoxin that builds up, and the more dangerous the peanut is. For this reason you cannot keep peanuts around for long periods of time.

A few years ago, Consumers Union looked into aflatoxins in peanut butter. They found the lowest amounts were found in name brands such as Peter Pan, Jif and Skippy, followed by the organic brands, with the highest levels found in peanut butter that you grind fresh in health food stores. The problem with health store peanut butter, is that you really have no idea how long the peanuts have been sitting in the store building up mold. Even once the peanuts are ground into peanut butter, the mold will still continue to grow. So, you may want to stick to the commercial brands.

Ketchup's Lycopene Benefits

You may be concerned that your child will not eat anything unless it is covered in ketchup. This concerns many parents due to the high salt content of ketchup, which down the road can lead to high blood pressure, stroke, heart attack, asthma, and potentially even stomach cancer. However, ketchup has its positive benefits. It contains one of the most powerful antioxidants called lycopene. When tomatoes are cooked, the way they are to make ketchup, the concentration of lycopene increases. Antioxidants keep cells healthy so they are associated with lowering the risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease. They now have reduced or salt-free ketchup, or give your kids organic ketchup which recent studies have shown contain three times more lycopene.

Gum is another product that seems like it would be bad for your kids' teeth. Surprisingly, chewing gum is actually good. The process of chewing cleans the surface of your teeth. Chewing also encourages the flow of saliva, which have antibodies that fight decay-causing bacteria. In 1999, a study at the University of the Pacific School of Dentistry found that chewing gum reduced the accumulation of plaque on teeth by 35 percent. The best solution for your kids is to give them sugar-free gum and you will only reap the benefits and none of the negatives.

Whether it is an everyday condiment like ketchup or seemingly healthy food items like juice and apple sauce, it can be difficult to know which foods may or may not be healthy for your kids.

The copyright of the article Surprising Healthy And Unhealthy Foods For Kids in Food Facts is owned by Gail Oliver. Permission to republish Surprising Healthy And Unhealthy Foods For Kids in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.