These snacks can raise glucose levels and should be avoided by diabetics. Added sugar, cornstarch, and corn syrup are problematic because they provide excess calories without providing any nutritional value. These empty calories can cause you to gain weight and may predispose you to metabolic syndrome. Fruit snacks have about 80 to 90 calories per small bag, a reasonable amount of calories for a children's snack.
They contain no fat or cholesterol and are very low in sodium. Many also provide vitamins A and C. Eating too much fruit can also cause stomach upset in some people. In fact, according to Bruning, heartburn, diarrhea, reflux and bloating are potential side effects of eating too much fruit.
Look for fruit without added sugar or sweeteners, and combine dried fruit with nuts as a snack with a balance of healthy carbohydrates and proteins. Some fruit snacks are made with concentrated fruit juice, which is more sweetening than the fruit itself. In other words, the complaint says that while Welch's wants you to think their fruit snacks are healthy, they certainly aren't, they're almost as good for your children as a herd of gummy bears. However, you should be careful with Welch fruit snacks if you are diabetic or are a candidate for diabetes.
They also don't amount to real fruit, even if they're made of real fruit, and they teach your child to like gummies, not whole fruit.
