Kid Fruit Juices Contain a Day’s Worth of Sugar
How many times have you given your kid a glass of 100% natural juice and next thing you know, they are bouncing off the walls? The answer is probably close to 100% of the time. It turns out those “healthy fruit juices” are not so healthy after all. According to a recent research study, more than half of the natural juices that are marketed towards children have unbelievably more than the recommended amount of sugar. The recommended amount of sugar for children in an entire day is about 19 grams or 5 teaspoons. The research study looked at over 200 products, and more than half of these products pack that same amount in one drink.
Professor Simon Capwell led the research, and this is how they came to the conclusion above. After taking their broad class of samples, the group started to calculate the free sugars. This is the amount of sugar that has been added to the products which include glucose, sucrose, table sugar and also fructose. The free sugars also include the naturally occurring sugars found in honey and syrups. However, this does not contain the sugars that are found in fruits and vegetables.
Parents Beware of Sugar in Fruit Juices
After learning about the impact of other fizzy drinks and sweetened juices, most parents will opt for a healthier option, and when they do, the fruit juices come beckoning. They seem like a much better option, but this is not the case. Parents and even children have been misled into thinking that this is a “healthy” drink for a kid when it is not.
The lead researcher advised parents to look for alternative ways for supplementing their children’s diet. One of the ways would be by feeding the child actual whole fruits. These contain essential fiber that allows the slow release of sugar into the body making it more manageable. If the parent has to opt for fresh juice for their child, they should pick the unsweetened variety and only serve during meals. They can also try to dilute the juice with water to reduce the concentration of sugars. Another tip, when serving juice, the amount should be limited to about 150ml a day.
As expected, the research did not sit well with the representatives of the Juice Based Products Association, who thought that parents should feel good about having the sweetened fruit juice for their children. The naysayers referred to research that indicates that drinking the juice does not lead to dental cavities and that in fact, more frequent drinking might have a protective effect in the dental nature of the kid. That is a debatable matter. What is not debatable, is that by letting your child drink this fresh juice filled with sugar, you are pumping them with way more than they need for the day.
Inspired by health.usnews.com
NutriFusion® Transforms Fruit Juices for Kids
So, we have too much sugar in our 100% fruit juices…It’s time to make a change and develop a better for you product line. The biggest problem that we see with juices other than the elevated sugar content is the lack of nutritional value. One would think if you are drinking fruit juice, then you are getting all the nutrients from fruit. Well, that is not the case. In fact, the majority of these juices have no vitamins and minerals, or they are fortified with synthetic forms of the nutrients. We can help you add back the natural nutritional value that these products desperately need.
NutriFusion® developed a patent pending method to stabilize the nutrients in whole fruits and vegetables. Our proprietary method keeps the nutrients stable through the intensive heating and cooling of modern day beverage processing. If you are interested in learning more about NutriFusion® for beverages, please visit the page below.
