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January 25th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda WEDNESDAY, Jan. 25 (HealthDay News) — It’s well-documented that
healthy foods such as fresh fruits and vegetables tend to cost more than
“junk” foods such as chips and cookies, a phenomenon that’s often cited as
a contributing factor to the U.S. obesity epidemic.
But a new study conducted in YMCAs found that healthy snacks aren’t
always more expensive, and in some cases are even more economical.
From 2006 to 2008, researchers from Harvard School of Public Health
evaluated the snacks offered to kids at 32 YMCAs in four cities in the
U.S. Pacific Northwest, South, Midwest and East.
The YMCA sites were participants in a program called the YMCA/Harvard
Afterschool Food and Fitness Project, designed to improve the diets and
boost physical activity among kids aged 5 to 12 attending the Ys’
after-school programs. The project set out standards for snacks served at
YMCAs, including: serving water instead of sugar-sweetened beverages,
offering whole grains and a fruit or vegetable with each snack and
avoiding trans fats.
“One of the questions we had was what kind of financial burden are we
putting on them to ask them to put these healthier foods into place,
because it’s known that healthy foods are more expensive,” said Rebecca
Mozaffarian, project manager for the YMCA/Harvard program.
The average cost per snack was 57 cents, with prices ranging from 47
cents in the Midwest and Northeast to 78 cents in the Pacific
Northwest.
As expected, snacks that met the healthy eating standards cost 50
percent more than those that didn’t.
However, some YMCAs found ways of mixing and matching combinations that
both met the healthy eating standards and kept costs at or even below what
it would cost to serve a less healthy alternative.
For example, serving water instead of fruit juice significantly reduced
the price of a snack. Instead of the fruit juice, Ys could serve water and
a banana or apple slices and water, and the snack had the same calorie
count at a lower cost. The whole fruit has the added nutritional benefits
of fiber and helping kids feel fuller, longer than juice, Mozaffarian
said.
Or, for example, water and cheese is less expensive than serving
chocolate milk, and the cheese contains less sugar.
Other areas where Ys could make improvements without adding to cost
were substituting whole grains, in foods such as Triscuits, Wheat Thins
and Cheerios, for refined grains such as graham crackers and Saltines.
And while snacks that included canned or frozen vegetables were on the
pricy side, snacks including fresh vegetables, such as carrots and celery,
were not.
The study is in the February issue of the journal Preventing Chronic
Disease.
Some YMCAs in low-income areas are reimbursed by the federal government
for snacks at a rate of 74 cents per snack per child. Using this as a
target number, researchers identified a dozen healthy snack combinations
that fall under that price. Those include: carrots, hummus and water;
apples, cheese slices, water; whole wheat bread, green peppers, turkey
slices, water; Craisins (dried cranberry snacks), string cheese, Wheat
Thins, water; and applesauce, popcorn, 1 percent milk, water.
Joy Dubost, a registered dietitian and spokeswoman for the Academy of
Nutrition and Dietetics, called the study “well-conducted.” However, the
five criteria used to determine what qualifies as a healthy snack option
aren’t as comprehensive as she would like.
For example, tortilla chips count as a whole grain and therefore meet
the criteria for a healthy snack option, but they’re also full of
saturated fat, which may contribute to heart disease over the long
term.
Applesauce counts as a fruit, but it would be better if the guidelines
specified that the after-school programs choose applesauce without added
sugar, she said.
In addition to addressing saturated fats and added sugars, the
healthiest after-school snack would take into account calories and sodium,
which many American children get too much of as well, Dubost said.
“It’s a step in the right direction, but they could be doing a little
bit more,” she said.
More information
For more on choosing healthy snacks for children, visit Food and Fun After School.
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