Kids Care About Nutrition, But Not Necessarily Enough

(MoneyWatch)  From the counterintuitive files: the research firm Mintel says children and teenagers are a lot more concerned about nutrition than we might think.

According to Food Business News, 42 percent of them "go for foods that provide more energy and over a third purposefully eat foods rich in vitamins and nutrients."

And a quarter of them try to avoid fat to some degree, while just over a fifth seek foods that are low in sugar.

But according to Mintel, these concerns don't necessarily translate into regular habits. "Now the challenge is to motivate more young people to actively improve what, when and how much they eat and to place healthfulness above indulgence more frequently than not," Mintel analyst Chris Haack told Food Business News, which notes that "the No. 1 fast-food restaurant youth visit is still McDonald's."

"Companies," Haack said, "need to find ways to reinvent home-based meals and energize healthy snacking so today's youth can see the benefits of better nutrition and take action."