A California company, Oh Yes Foods, has created a pizza that’s loaded up with hidden fruits and vegetables. The product is available in some Western states at Whole Foods and Target, reports The New York Times. As parents struggle with getting their children to eat the recommended serves of fruit and vegetables, could this veggie subterfuge be a viable solution?
Amy Goldsmith, the chief executive of Oh Yes, said two of the company’s founders, both medical doctors, struggled for years with their picky daughter. “They tried everything to get her to eat healthy food but she just wouldn’t do it,” she says. “It was all about hot dogs and cheese pizza.” In desperation, they dried fruits and vegetables in an old food dehydrator they had, then used their coffee grinder to powder the produce and slip it into their daughter’s pizza crust and sauce.
Now they’re bringing their sneaking prowess to the masses by selling frozen pizza containing 12 kinds of dehydrated, powdered produce: kale, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, beets, tomatoes, green peppers, onion, butternut squash, artichoke, papaya and guava. One 10-inch pie reportedly contains five-and-a-half servings of fruits and vegetables.
Oh Yes isn’t the only company getting sneaky with produce. New York-based Kidfresh offers tot-friendly frozen entrees and snacks, such as macaroni and cheese and pepperoni pizza bites, all with a dose of puréed vegetables — in some cases enough to meet one-third of a young child’s daily requirement. “No more battles or headaches at mealtime with your little ones,” Kidfresh promises, “because we bring a fresh twist to vegetables: It is as if they were not there.”
For beleaguered parents of picky kids, that sort of pitch can be a siren song. Even parents whose children happily accept fruits and vegetables might still welcome these products, which claim nutritional superiority over traditional versions. And the market seems to confirm there’s a growing demand for produce-doctored foods for kids: Kidfresh has seen 50 to 60 percent growth annually and recently received an infusion of outside capital to further expand.
Sally Kuzemchak, a registered dietitian and blogger at Real Mom Nutrition, is concerned about the mixed messages adults send when they hide vegetables in food. “It’s like telling kids, ‘This pizza is unhealthy, but this pizza is healthy because it has ground-up veggies in the sauce.’” And by hiding produce in another food, she adds, “there’s an implication that eating fruits and vegetables is a chore to be avoided or worked around, and I find it particularly troublesome when we’re giving that message to kids.”
Another question is whether hidden fruits and vegetables, particularly when reduced to powder form, can be regarded as the equivalent of fresh. Ms. Kuzemchak says they might be, “in a sort of George Jetson way.” But she pointed out that one of the valuable things you’re missing with dehydrated fruits or vegetables is the water. Water “is part of what makes these typically low-calorie, nutrient-rich foods so filling. That’s one reason why they’re an important part of the diet.”
