Apples are American Children’s Top Choice In Fruits

A recent study conducted by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention indicates that American kids prefer apples to other fruits. The researchers found that 90% of fruit intake came from whole fruits or 100% fruit juice, and that apples, apple juice, citrus juice and bananas accounted for nearly half of total fruit consumption.

The research team was pleased that at least kids eat fruits, but they plan to urge authorities and parents to persuade the little ones to get 100 percent of their daily fruit from whole fruits, and ditch fruit juices.

It was discovered that 53% of the study participants were more likely to eat whole fruits, while 34% opted for 100-percent fruit juices. Statistically speaking, there’s no safer bet than apples, which are by far and away the most commonly consumed fruit among children.

At the end of the day, the study emphasis that the most important thing is to consume a variety of fruits.

On the whole, apples accounted for about one-fifth of total fruit intake.

Scientists based their study on a two-year-long CDC survey that involved more than 3,000 kids and adolescents. In 2011 and 2012, the kids were asked to recall everything they ate and drank in the previous 24 hours.

“And keeping those numbers in significance parents should start to offer fruits to kids from an early age”, Dr. Deena Blanchard of NYU Langone Medical Center told CBS News.

“It’s simultaneously horrifying and not at all shocking that a full third of all “fruit” being consumed by children is in juice form, a number that leaps to 40.9% in the under 5 crowd”, commented Yoni Freedhoff, assistant professor of family medicine at the University of Ottawa.

However, little is known about what type of whole fruits (or juices) children are eating.

There were significant differences in fruit consumption patterns between age and race, but not gender.

She comments, “Young children may find it difficult to chew a whole hard fruit, or eat it with the skin”. “There is also the issue about… whether soda may squeeze out fruit juice consumption in older children or children from specific ethnic backgrounds”.

“You are not getting the fiber that you are getting with eating a whole piece of fruit”, Blanchard said.