Don't be fooled by the name and packaging: Fruit snacks are rarely good for you. Here's why.
Every good parent wants to do right by their kids. We work to make sure they have good friends, oversee schoolwork and extracurricular activities, and strive to ensure they are eating a well-balanced diet.
But that doesn't mean we don't experience a range of shortcomings such as not getting them to bed early enough, letting them spend a bit too much time in front of the television or their iPad, and, perhaps most frequently, choosing convenience over nutrition when it comes to what they eat.
Sometimes we even trick ourselves into thinking that something that isn't so great from them is, such as when we turn to fruit snacks as a "healthy" snack option.
What are fruit snacks?
Fruit snacks are a gelatinous treat with added fruit flavoring, puree, juice or concentrate and a host of other ingredients which are sometimes molded together to resemble the shapes of popular fruits such as oranges, strawberries, raspberries or grapes.
"They are typically produced by mixing fruit ingredients with sugar and other additives, and are then cooked, shaped, and packaged," says Lisa Young, a registered dietitian, adjunct professor of nutrition at New York University and author of "Finally Full, Finally Slim."
Shelley Rael, a registered dietitian and nutritionist based in Albuquerque New Mexico, says that some brands of fruit snacks have fewer ingredients, such as fruit puree or concentrate and some ascorbic acid (to keep the product from browning), plus added sweeteners. "But other brands have multiple ingredients, including thickeners like gelatin or starch, additional flavors, and dyes to make the color more pronounced," she explains.
Are fruit snacks healthy?
No matter how many ingredients are in your favorite fruit snack brand, it would be a stretch to call them a "health food," says Barbara Olendzki, associate professor of population and quantitative health sciences at UMass Chan Medical School. "They should be thought of as candy," she says, since fruit snacks "don’t generally have the water, natural fiber, or vitamin and mineral content of real fruit." She adds that labeling them as healthy, "is particularly concerning for children, as they need the nutrition from whole fruit to grow and resist illness and disease."
That doesn't mean that some fruit snack varieties aren't healthier than others. "Varieties labeled as 100% fruit can be healthier, but it's essential to check the ingredients and nutrition facts label," says Young. Ditto for fruit snack varieties fortified with vitamins and minerals.
Even in such cases, however, "processing of this food strips fruit snacks of much of the beneficial fiber, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants found in whole fruit," says Dr. Uma Naidoo, director of nutritional and lifestyle psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Harvard-trained nutritional psychiatrist behind “Calm Your Mind with Food."
Rael agrees, saying that even among the "healthiest" fruit snack brands, the treat "can be a dense form of calories without the nutrients found in whole fruit." Illustrating this, consider that only 15 pieces of strawberry fruit snacks contain 90 calories, while it takes 40 individual strawberries to reach the same number of calories - and the whole fruit option also provides calcium, iron, vitamin B6, vitamin A, phosphorus, niacin, and plenty of vitamin C, folate, protein and fiber.
"Fruit snacks are commonly perceived as healthy because their name tricks people into thinking that they are consuming fruit in some form, but often the fruit added is not from whole fruit, but from sugar-laden fruit juice instead," says Naidoo.
Are fruit snacks high in sugar?
In fact, some fruit snacks are so high in sugar that one report points out that the 11 grams (3 teaspoons) of sugar found in one popular brand's fruit snack flavor means that nearly half of every bite eaten is pure sugar. By comparison, one serving of gummy bears has 14 grams of sugar.
Young points out that the harms of eating too much sugar in the form of fruit snacks can lead to dental issues "with the sticky sugars getting stuck in teeth," weight gain and diminished energy levels. "Excessive sugar consumption can affect overall health in anyone but is particularly concerning for children, who are more prone to cavities and may consume these snacks in large quantities," she adds.
Indeed, Naidoo warns that the especially high sugar content of fruit snacks "is known to be addictive, so it is easy to eat a lot of fruit snacks and continue to crave them." She adds that eating too many also poses a risk to one's stomach microbiome, "as the bad bugs in the gut thrive on sugar and many of the other artificial ingredients in fruit snacks." She says this "can lead to a host of inflammatory issues like fatigue, mood swings, stress, depression and cognitive decline with age."
Like any food though, the amount of consumed fruit snacks is what matters, so it's not necessary to avoid them altogether, the nutritionists say. "Fruit snacks can be an acceptable on-the-go snack if they are made with 100% fruit, but they can also be no more than fruit-flavored snack gummies, which are nothing more than candy with a health halo or health label," says Rael. "Sometimes people see the word 'fruit' and think healthy without checking the details."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Are fruit snacks healthy?
