what about those dried fruit snacksfruit bars for kids

[christie1]

I have a fussy eater but I can get him to eat dried fruit and those fruit bars but I am suspicious. When I read the labels they talk about 100% fruit although pureed but the label seems high in carbohydrates and no listing of vitamin content. Can I assume because it is pureed fruit that is is loaded up with vitamins or am I being sold a bill of goods. I want to be able to pack a fruit bar in his lunch and feel food that I am getting one of the five a day in that way. Any experience on this?

These tend to have a high percentage of sugar but what you also need to check is the % content for high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) which is a sweetener made from corn. It provides sweetness at a level equivalent to table sugar and gives snack bars their soft chewy texture. HFCS contains approximately equal ratios of fructose and glucose just like sucrose (table sugar).

There are some scare stories in the press about HFCS being responsible for the rise in obesity but what the scare mongers forget and what informed nutritionist will say is that the rise in obesity is due to the imbalance between calories consumed and calories burned. If you eat a lot of food and don't do much exercise, you will put on weight regardless of whether it contains HFCS or sucrose.

Feeding your child a cereal bar as part of a balanced diet is not a problem imo but I will guarantee that someone will post that they are the food of the devil. Also, I personally would not count a cereal bar towards my fruit or veg quota for the day. I prefer to eat the real thing but as you have a fussy child, you know what is best for your situation.

not a cereal bar speedymama, a fruit bar, like humzingers or school bars.

i wouldn't use it as a fruit replacement
as a fun treat maybe but it's not a real apple or banana

Oh sorry, I've not come across these humzinger things, or fruit bars for that matter.

I'd use them as a snack replacement not instead of fruit. My children don't like them much anyway.

ok, good advice all. I will have to work harder at getting the "real thing into them". I can get them drinking smoothies loaded with fruit. I was hoping that plus those dried fruit bars would get me closer to the 5 a day rule. My 2 fussy eaters love them, but not the non-fussy ones. I think they are vile to taste. Strange how the fussy ones love them but gag on an apple.

humzingers are just 100% fruit rolled in rice flour to make them less sticky school bars are full of all sorts!