Anita Fuentes wants son Jaylen, 5, to eat healthfully. Obesity runs on her side of the family; stomach cancer runs on her late husband’s side. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
USC nutrition expert Emily Ventura, right, goes through Anita Fuentes’ pantry to make recommendations on dietary changes -- among them, avoiding refined sugars in breakfast foods. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
Ventura points out the sugar content (60 grams, or about 14 teaspoons, per 16 ounces) of Jaylen’s favorite chocolate milk mom Anita. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
Ventura discusses the sugar content of artificially flavored maple syrup with Fuentes. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
Jaylen, 5, finishes a sports drink that might soon be ousted from his diet as his mom and Ventura talk. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
Anita Fuentes checks the nutritional information on a sports drink bottle. When Ventura demonstrated the sugar content of a fruit punch with table sugar, Fuentes said, “Wow, that’s already a lot of sugar. I just figured, they’re kids, and it’s juice.” (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
Anita Fuentes fries chicken, salts green beans and prepares mashed potatoes that she’ll butter. “We don’t eat a lot of fried chicken and fish, but we do eat it,” she says. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
Fuentes has fruit around for her children to snack on; Ventura praised this and recommended some additional options from a farmers market. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
