Health (Research):
Sugar:
Fizzy drinks, fruit juice and squash can be high in sugar, which can cause tooth decay. Because sugary drinks can be high in energy (calories), having these drinks too often can also lead to weight gain and obesity.
The best drinks to give children are plain water and milk.
The kind of sugar we eat too much of is known as "free sugar". Free sugars are any sugars added to food or drinks, or found naturally in honey, syrups and unsweetened fruit juices.
Drinks with free sugars include:
- squashes
- fruit juices and smoothies
- juice drinks
- fizzy drinks
- flavoured milks
- milkshakes
These drinks can cause tooth decay, and most contain very few nutrients. They can also be filling, which could reduce a child's appetite for foods that contain the nutrients they need.
Diluting squash well with water will make it less sugary.
Unsweetened 100% fruit juice or smoothies:
When fruit is juiced or blended, the sugar contained in the fruit is released, which can damage children's teeth and may cause tooth decay.
However, fruit juices contain valuable vitamins and minerals.
Government advice is to limit the amount of fruit juice and smoothie we have to a combined total of 150ml a day (one portion).
150ml of unsweetened, fresh 100% fruit juice or smoothie can count as one of your five daily portions of fruit and veg.
(https://www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/are-squash-and-pure-fruit-juice-better-for-children-than-fizzy-drinks.aspx?CategoryID=51&SubCategoryID=163)
Juicing:
Juicing is a process which extracts water and nutrients from produce and discards the indigestible fibre. Without all the fibre, your digestive system doesn’t have to work as hard to break down the food and absorb the nutrients.
When you remove the fibre from the produce, the liquid juice is absorbed into your blood stream quickly. If you are only juicing fruits, this would cause a rapid spike in blood sugar and unstable blood sugar levels can lead to mood swings, energy loss, memory problems and more!
(https://www.foodmatters.com/article/juicing-vs-blending-which-one-is-better)
The advantages of juicing for kids:
- Children are growing. Fresh juices are a great way to get high concentrations of nutrients into a child’s systems at such an important time in their physical development.
- Children who drink fresh juices regularly are less likely to fall sick compared to children who don’t drink.
- Juicing can be a great way to introduce new foods into a child’s diet. Stronger tastes such as lemon can be used to disguise more subtle tastes like spinach that children may otherwise turn their nose up at.
- Juicing is a great way to broaden an infant’s pallet and give them a balanced diet.
(https://juicing-for-health.com/guide-to-juicing-for-kids)
The main benefits of juicing are:
- Juicing allows for quicker digestion and an improved rate of absorption of nutrients into the body.
- Juicing leads to better detoxification and improved health.
- Juicing gives your stomach and intestines a rest as it removes hard to digest fibres.
- Juicing can be a great way to get kids to eat their greens or any other vegetables that they will not eat in isolation.
(https://juicing-for-health.com/ultimate-beginners-guide-to-juicing)
Blending:
Unlike juices, smoothies consist of the entire fruit or vegetable, skin and all and contain all of the fibre from the vegetables. However, the blending process breaks the fibre apart (which makes the fruit and vegetables easier to digest ) but also helps create a slow, even release of nutrients into the blood stream and avoids blood sugar spikes. Smoothies tend to be more filling, because of the fibre, and generally faster to make than juice.
Limit fruit juice and smoothies to a combined total of 150ml a day. Keep it to mealtimes, as it can cause tooth decay.
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