A new survey has shown that more than half of the total fruit consumption for US kids and teens comes from whole fruits, most commonly apples, Reuters reports.
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention report, the whole fruit consumption of kids increased by 67 percent between the years 2003 and 2010.
"My ultimate goal was to understand what kids are eating," said lead author Kirsten A. Herrick of the National Center for Health Statistics in Hyattsville, Maryland.
"Only about 40 percent of U.S. youth meet the target for consumption on any given day," Herrick told Reuters Health by phone.
However, despite the increase in fruit consumption, most kids in the US still do not eat the recommended amount of fruit or vegetables, according to the CDC, Reuters reports.
For the study, the researchers studied the eating habits of more than 3,000 kids and teens age two to 19 from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
The study revealed that kids ate 1.25 cups of total fruit per day, out of which almost 90 percent came from whole fruits or 100 percent fruit juices, while the rest came from mixed dishes or fruit drinks. Kids age two to five ate less whole fruit and more fruit juice than older kids.
Apples accounted for about one fifth of the total fruit intake, since they are easy to pack and palatable. Herrick also said that applesauce is introduced early on to kids.
Eva Almiron-Roig, a Dietary Assessment Research Scientist at MRC Human Nutrition Research in Cambridge, U.K., who was not part of the new study, said that the texture and thickness of the fruit and the skin of the fruit played a role in children eating a particular fruit.
"Young children may find it difficult to chew a whole hard fruit, or eat it with the skin," Almiron-Roig told Reuters Health by email. "There is also the issue about ... whether soda may squeeze out fruit juice consumption in older children or in children from specific ethnic backgrounds."
