National Study Recommends Georgia Children Need to Eat More Fruits and Vegetables
Monday, February 27th, 2023
Young children need fruits and vegetables daily to support healthy growth and brain development but a new study has found 1 in 2 Georgia children don’t eat a vegetable daily and 1 in 3 don’t eat a fruit daily.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released the results of a 2021 study, “Fruit, Vegetable, and Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Intake Among Young Children, by State.” [https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/72/wr/mm7207a1.htm?s_cid=mm7207a1_w] The data indicates the importance of and need for interventions at both the national and state levels that improve young children’s nutrition to support their optimal growth and brain development.
The CDC study cites the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans which recommends that children eat fruits and vegetables each day, and limit sugar sweetened beverages. However, it also found that many young children between ages 1 and 5 years are not eating fruits and vegetables each day and are regularly drinking sugary beverages.
“Two-thirds of Chatham County children 2-5 years of age consume more than the recommended amount of sugar daily and 73% of food advertisements use familiar characters to target children,” said Paula Kreissler, executive director of Healthy Savannah. Kreissler has been at the forefront of a “healthy checkout” initiative to encourage local grocery stores to place healthy items at the registers instead of sugary snacks.
“Moreover, 17.6% of all Savannahians are food insecure and 21.8% of our children are food insecure,” Kreissler said. “Food insecurity is more than lack of access, it’s about being able to find fresh fruits and vegetables near where you live. Improving access to healthy foods is one of Healthy Savannah’s top initiatives through the Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) grant.”
The five-year, $3.4 million REACH grant is administered by Healthy Savannah and the YMCA of Coastal Georgia. The grant was awarded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2018 with funding deployed in an “upstream” approach by the Savannah/Chatham County project team to foster sustainable health equity among Black residents in low-wealth neighborhoods.
