Apples Are American Kids’ Favorite Fruit

Or maybe the answer is cash as a different study released a week ago, conducted in Utah across six elementary schools, tried to get kids to eat more fruits and vegetables by one of three ways cash, praise, and nothing.

“Apples and apple juice alone account for 30 percent of total fruit intake”, said study author Kirsten Herrick, a senior service fellow with the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics. Even if children prefer apples or oranges, they should be encouraged to eat a wider variety of fruits, she said.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), a diet that is rich in fruits and vegetables is linked to a lower risk of health complications like diabetes, stroke and cancer.

While the U.S. Department recommends that children eat anywhere from 1 to 2 cups of fruit a day, the study also found that children were eating an average of 1.25 cups of fruit every day. But it can be a problem if juice is children’s only source of fruit, because then they aren’t being exposed to real fruit, she said.

“In general, kids are not eating enough fruit”, she said. “The rest should be [whole] fruit”.

Bananas and melons were the next in line behind apples.

The study did not find any change in preference between gender or financial status, but there have been differences among ethnicities and ages.

“The study can’t speak to why these differences exist”, Herrick said, but other research suggests that ethnic culture and fruit availability are major factors. The findings are helpful to researchers, policymakers, parents and nutrition educators, she said.

Juice was the second most common way that kids and adolescents got their fruit, the researchers found, with 100 percent fruit juices accounting for just over one-third of kids’ fruit intake, according to the study.