Four questions about our children’s food, from home to school
Vegetables, juice, the canteen and sugar: four questions about our children’s food, and what the sources say.
The question often starts at the vegetable plate: a child refuses an item and we stop offering it. Then they ask for juice and eat from the school canteen, so we asked the studies and recommendations about each of these.
This issue has four questions, from the home plate to the canteen, answered by researchers and official bodies.
of the Kingdom’s children aged 2 to 14 are overweight. Obesity is a separate indicator in the same source, shown below.
Your child refuses broccoli… should you offer it again?
A British review of 30 studies on more than 4,000 children aged two to five found that interventions with repeated tasting of vegetables worked better than others at increasing how much they eat:
They also ate more when vegetables were served on their own, without sauce or dressing. The review covered children aged two to five only, so we don’t generalise the result to others, and repeated offering doesn’t mean forcing the child to eat.
How much juice should your child drink a day?
Juice has more sugar and calories than whole fruit, and lacks its fibre, so the American Academy of Pediatrics sets a daily limit:
Which items are banned in the canteen?
The Ministry of Education banned the sale of 30 food and drink items in school canteens, to reduce students’ access to what is high in sugar or fat, including:
Canteen food is prepared on the same day it is sold.
How much added sugar is enough for your child a day?
The American Heart Association recommends that a child aged two to 18 eat less than six teaspoons of added sugar a day:
It also recommends that sweetened drinks not exceed one cup a week, and that children under two have no added sugar at all. This is the American Heart Association’s recommendation, independent of the Saudi canteen list above: two different sources and contexts.
Picks from childhood news
A General Authority for Statistics report said that 85.3% of the Kingdom’s children aged 24 to 59 months are developmentally on track in health, learning and psychosocial wellbeing.
General Authority for Statistics, via Okaz, 28 October 2026In a study of 46 children aged 7 to 10, the brain’s reward centres responded more strongly to food images in those who ate more ultra-processed food, and it was linked to weight gain a year later, a small study that does not prove cause.
University of Southern California, on JAMA Network Open, via News-Medical, 23 October 2026A second and third time
If your child refuses a vegetable, you can offer it again at a coming meal, on its own without sauce, with no pressure, even if they eat only a small bite.
Which food does your child always refuse?
Send it to editorial@saudifoodtech.sa, and we may dedicate an upcoming issue to it.
Sources
- General Authority for Statistics, Health Determinants Statistics 2024 (18 November 2024), and early childhood statistics, via Okaz (28 October 2026).
- Nekitsing et al. study, Appetite (August 2018).
- American Academy of Pediatrics, juice recommendation (22 May 2017).
- Ministry of Education, banned items in canteens, via Gulf News (8 September 2026).
- American Heart Association, added sugar in children, Circulation, via ScienceDaily (22 August 2016).
- University of Southern California, JAMA Network Open, via News-Medical (23 October 2026).
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