Is it possible for kids to eat too much fruit?
Fruit is the perfect snack straight from nature. Fruits are naturally sweet, brimming with important vitamins and minerals and contains natural fibre for good gut health.
Most kids love eating fruit, and some kids will eat lots of it if given the chance. But is it possible for kids to eat too much fruit?
We asked our nutrition consultant for her thoughts…
“The problem is NOT that fruit is bad or contains too much sugar - fruit has many nutritional benefits. It’s simply that when kids are filling up on fruit, they run out of room for other foods. And when the balance is out, nutrition suffers. As carers of children, it’s our job to help kids to get the balance right with fruit and everything else.” - Deb Blakley, Accredited Practising Dietitian, Kids Dig Food
Like any other food group, it’s possible to overdo fruit.
So how much fruit should kids be eating? 🍽
The National Health And Medical Research Council (NHMRC) recommends that children aged 2-3 years old need just 1 serving of fruit each day, older children aged 4-8 years need 1.5 serves and our toddlers and babies less than 1 serve. Children in long day care need to be provided half of their daily nutrition needs in care, so Yummies menus aim to meet or exceed this 50% requirement for all food groups.
A standard serve of fruit is about 150g or:
1 medium-sized piece of fruit (e.g. apple, orange, banana)
2 small pieces of fruit (e.g. plums, kiwifruit)
1 cup of diced fruit
All Yummies menus provide fruit in generous proportions with our older kids receiving exactly the amount of fruit they need or more. Our menus also take into consideration that younger kids and toddlers are still learning to like veggies, and are usually eating a bit more fruit to make up for this. The fruit allowance for our younger kids is up to twice what the recommendations say they need.
Although it may be tempting to offer larger quantities of fruit because children gobble them up easily or selected kid-favourites like watermelon, it’s not the answer for optimal nutrition. Our aim is to expose children to a wide variety of food so they can grow to LOVE many, many types of foods and of course, fruit. We help you get the balance right!
