By ARA Content

Back-to-school time brings many thoughts to mind: new clothes, new notebooks and supplies, new friends, new ideas to learn.

It also presents a new opportunity to make sure children eat healthy and nutritious meals and snacks.

Did you know that currently less than 15 percent of children in the United States are eating the recommended five servings of fruit and vegetables a day? An alarming 75 percent have a diet containing more fat than the maximum recommended level. Clearly, children need to learn more about why eating fruits and vegetables is important.

Parents looking for ways to get their children to eat more fruit and vegetables can logon to www.aboutproduce.com, a Web site with free recipes and valuable nutrition information for all members of the family. It has won a bronze award in the World Wide Web Health Awards Program, in addition to being featured in Prevention, Better Homes & Gardens and other publications.

Parents can search the recipe database for a wide variety of fruit and vegetable dishes - breakfast items, salads, main dishes, desserts and snacks - discover how long the meals take to prepare, and add the ingredients to their printable shopping list. There is also a free e-mail recipe club for visitors to sign up to receive a weekly recipe.

After parents have found a healthy meal for the family, the children can have some fun. In the children’s section of aboutproduce.com, called “The Produce Patch,” four characters (Chirp, Paulina, Caleb and Hoyt) help children become more familiar with fruit and vegetables.

Children can learn how to make tasty after-school snacks, such as fruit smoothies, shakes and fruit cups; go on an interactive adventure on a make-believe farm to find certain fruits and vegetables; paint coloring-book pages online or print the pages in black and white for offline entertainment; discover different ways to use produce items in crafts; and get answers to their produce-related questions.

Children can also use the Web site as a source of information for homework, school reports and projects.

In addition to the recipe database and the children’s section, aboutproduce.com has a health and nutrition dictionary. It can help family members learn about the “5 A Day” program, which advocates eating five servings of fruit and vegetables a day for better health. There are also tips on how to get fit with “5 A Day.”

The dictionary explains how much a serving actually is. It’s smaller than you’d think. One serving can be: 1 medium-size piece of fruit, 3/4 cup (6 oz.) of 100 percent fruit or vegetable juice, 1/2 cup cooked or canned vegetables or fruit, 1 cup raw leafy vegetables, 1/2 cup cooked dry peas or beans, or 1/4 cup dried fruit.

Armed with this knowledge, parents can show children that eating “5 A Day” really isn’t all that hard.