Children who are overweight typically stuff themselves with too many french fries and potato chips - the least healthy way of eating this vegetable. Potato chips and fries make up more than one-quarter of the vegetable servings eaten by children and nearly one-third of the vegetables consumed by teenagers, according to survey compiled by Catherine Champagne, a researcher at Louisiana State University's Pennington Biomedical Research Institute.
The research highlights the importance of educating parents and children about healthier diets that focus on raw leafy vegetables and cutting back on fried snacks.
Children younger than 7 years old get 27.3% of their vegetables in the form of fries and chips. For children ages 7 to 12, this figure rises to 28.9% and 31.2% for those aged 13 to 18. Black teens at 40% are at highest risk of getting too much of their vegetable intake from fries and chips.
(Catherine Champagne, LSU's Pennington Biomedical Research Institute,225/763-2500, www.pbrc.edu)