Buy fruit juice like cran-apple and add 3/4 water. You have to use a glass though. Is that so hard?
4
"When it comes to children 2 to 18, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends a daily limit of 25 grams of sugar, or six teaspoons"
6 teaspoons? There is no traditional diet on the planet that contains that much sugar. That should be the weekly limit.
3
There is a problem with the contention of this article in that added sugar is the problem.
Sorry, but the fructose (fruit sugar) is the problem and is probably worse than sugar: please let's stop giving the kids juice, give them the whole fruit with all the fibre as this appears to modulate the negative aspects of fructose and just push water and perhaps milk as drinks of choice.
5
Learn to read labels on food items. This should be your guide to identifying and substituting better choices like apple pieces instead of juice boxes. I’m sure you can think of more examples.
2
Big Sugar is one of the most powerful lobbying forces that hasn’t been held accountable. Sugar is addictive (for just about everyone) and these companies have long known it, just as Big Tobacco did. The sugar industry and the companies that produce high-sugar products have profited greatly knowing how sick they are making children, teens, and adults. Want to know one of the the biggest culprits of rising medical and insurance costs? Look at Big Sugar.
3
Decent article, but with a glaring miss: even 100% fruit juice is loaded with sugar and is not healthful. The resulting elevated blood glucose and jacked insulin response don’t discriminate whether the sugar bomb received is sucrose, HFCS, agave syrup, or the unnaturally concentrated fructose in 100% juice.
7
This article seems to paint parents as helpless victims of malicious marketing. Are companies trying to get parents to give their children sugar-laden products? Of course. However, how this confuses parents is beyond me. Kool
-Aid, lemonade and Capri Sun could never pose as healthy. Parents aren’t unwittingly giving their children sugar- they know they are doing it, and the scary thing is, it’s normal.
6
Water is just what children should drink, pediod. Anything else should be absolutely exceptional and even milk is just another lobby from the dairy industry.
4
@Xavier actually milk is necessary for children, especially girls. Ask the American Association of Pediatricians.
5
Add this to the analysis:
According to a study by the campaign group Action on Sugar "in 4 out of 7 cases the highest free sugar content per 330 ml was found in North America (USA or Canada)"
I guess you get what you ask for. Or is it a question of the chicken or the egg?
1
This article seems to imply that real fruit juice is healthier. But fruit juice is itself high in empty sugar calories. Stick to milk and water.
9
I was gonna say.
2
None contain sugar only HFCS or some other chemical
sweetener.
1
When you choose to give your children is a choice. We have always steered our son towards milk and water and that's what he prefers. We've never let him drink soda pop, which should never ben given to children in my opinion, and he only occasionally drinks fruit juice. Nutrition is a choice and treating our children good habits is your responsibility as a parent.
8
May I add unsweetened herbal tea like fennel and chamomile. Just make sure there aren’t any sweet ingredients in the tea itself (happens frequently with teas marketed to children).
5
@John Smith Milk is not a good drink for children, or anybody for that matter. Do some research on the detrimental effects of dairy products. Start with "The China Study," by Doctor Caldwell Esselstyn.
2
@James Banzer; water is the best choice, however skim milk is a far better option then sugar laden drinks. I have acquaintances & relatives in dairy farm country who drink quite a bit of milk. They are among the healthiest individuals I know.
1
I remember listening to a New York Giants baseball game as a 12 or 13 year old kid. My parents were out, working. My meal was a jug of Koolaid ( out of the envelope, with some ice, just flavored sugar was all it was) and a 12 or 18 inch loaf of crusty Italian bread slathered with soft oleo margarine. I’m still suffering for it to this day some 60 plus years later.
3
I live in Hawaii, where thirst is an almost everyday sensation (as opposed to hunger which I haven't felt since 1972). If you go into a convenience store here the selection of drinks is abysmal. You have basically 2 choices: drinks packed with sugar (sodas, fruit juices like OJ - which has more calories than Coke, sugary teas and energy drinks) or zero calorie drinks (like diet colas, flavored sparkling waters or plain water). Why can't they make a drink that only has 20 or 30 calories - as opposed to the 140 in a 12 oz can of Coke or 170 in a 12 oz bottle of OJ? For the beverage industry it seems like it's all or nothing.
2
Apple juice is one of the first "real" foods that kids are given. Apples are healthy, but take the apple out and just leave the juice. it's a straight shot of sugar. That is where kids get hooked on sweet.
8
One thing this article steers away from is cultural habits, wide availability and expectations. Sure, at the introduction of soda, labeling gimmicks may have been a major reason for its adoption. However, that’s not the case now. Soda is widely available, inexpensive and addictive. Labels could be blank and it would still be an issue at this point.
2
Let's begin the conversation about Kool-Aid and all soft drinks about their water source.
7
If the label says "Blend", "drink", "punch" "cocktail" or "beverage"...it is NOT pure fruit juice.
How can anyone not know this?
14
How is it that parents are either so uneducated or dumb, they can't look at the back of the bottle, read the label that clearly shows how many grams of sugar are present, and move on?
Either education must improve, or we just come to the conclusion that a good half of society are helpless dimwits that will alway be prey to the opportunists out there.
22
I think you may be overestimating the parental competency of the average American.
1
Not gonna dispute that the US education system needs improvement. But also, parenting is exhausting; every minute seems to be a a war of cognitive attrition, battle of wills with the kid, and a battle of wits with nine jillion industries all looking to exploit a moment of weakness or inattention in order to get into yo ur grocery cart and your kid's habits . You shouldn't have to dissect the label on every container like it's CSI Miami.
3
As a mother and now a grandmother, I have never understood why any parent would want a toddler/young child careening through their house with a soppy cup full of a sugary drink. Sticky fingers on everything, spills (yes, even sippy cups can spill!), stickiness everywhere. Even if a parent is indifferent to the health of their children, who wants something sticky spread throughout a house?
Water is a wonderful drink between meals! If it spills, it's "just water" and will dry and leave no stickiness behind. If one teaches ones child to drink water when thirsty, they will continue as a teen and into adult years. Neither of my children is a big fan of soft drinks - they don't even keep them in their houses. Their children are water drinkers.
Milk at meals, water when thirsty. Healthy and promotes good housekeeping, too!
27
These hordes of ignorant, careless parents are the source of most of society's ills.
I can't believe these people. They are somehow incapable of reaching for the instant internet machine in their pocket and spending 10 minutes of their life doing Google research on free NIH or .edu websites, to figure out how to keep their children healthy?
People this shiftless shouldn't have kids at all.
27
I thoroughly enjoyed overhearing a conversation between a grandmother and two school-aged grandchildren, while I was waiting in a line at the store, about sugar in foods and drinks. The grandmother was patiently explaining how just because the label says "no added sugar" doesn't mean the food is low in sugar or healthy.
"Next time we're together I'll teach you how to read nutrition labels."
Kudos to grandma, for teaching the kids critical thinking and nutrition.
38
There were plenty of sugary drinks around when I was a child in the 60s and 70s. My parents refused to buy any of them or keep them around the house. To their credit they didn't drink any of them themselves. We had regular orange juice, grapefruit juice, cider, milk, water, and as treat we were allowed ginger ale.
If children want soda parents can introduce them to fruit drink soda. By that I mean having some seltzer around the house and adding real fruit juice to it. If you or anyone in your family has a sweet tooth try to satisfy it with fruit. If you're in the mood for a cookie have a real cookie, not one that's made with a sugar substitute. The only people who must use sugar substitutes are diabetics.
In the end the food industry can accomplish as much as it does because parents give into children when there is money to spend on better food. Soda, Kool Aid, etc., are not supposed to be every day drinks. We'd be better off not introducing our young children to them at all.
6
Why are parents assumed to be idiots? In 2019, no parent can be clueless about the sugar in pop and juice. No one is confused.
And if parents insist on buying it despite the effect on their children’s health and teeth, tax it to high heaven. Or keep paying for the problems associated with diabetes, obesity. None of this is rocket science.
31
@Julia Longpre I was in a busy DMV a few months ago and overheard a family next to me discussing their son's recent dental appointment, which resulted in a lot of fillings needed. Mom asks why is he drinking so many sports drinks and Dad responds "athletes drink them, aren't they healthy?"
It's not rocket science, but many parents are that dim.
21
@Julia Longpre I agree with you. We know it is damaging, and at the same time we want to protect free choice. The most all-American response to that combination is to tax it like we have chosen to do for cigarettes and booze.
4
Why does the author leave out the elephant in the room? Not one mention of the word "soda" in an article about sugary drinks marketed to kids but a single can of Fanta Orange soda has 44g of sugar and a can of Coke has 39g of sugar. I'm willing to bet there are more 2-liter bottles of soda at the average kids birthday party than Kool-Aid and Hawaiian Punch.
9
@Dylan Goldman I think the idea is that because it's "fruit" juice, people see it as a healthy alternative. But it's not.
3
@Suzanne Wheat fruit juice isn't healthy.
1
Terribly misleading headline: the story is NOT about how children get hooked—the story is about marketing
7
Marketing IS how children get hooked in the first place.
6
The only healthy drinks for kids are water and milk, period.
That said, my daughter occasionally drinks some juice at daycare, but I never offer it to her at home or when we're out. She is always satisfied with water ("wa-wa") or milk. Juice is a treat. She gets enough sugar from fruit and with that all the fiber it provides.
Believe me, I know the struggle is real. I very rarely buy or bake sweet things because if it is around I devour it. I'm using the opportunity of having a small child in the house to focus on studying and changing my relationship to sugar. It is everywhere. It's not evil, but there is too much and it's way too easy to not realize it is in pratically everything and in all sorts of foods it doesn't need to be.
Best thing you can do is spend time reading nutrition labels!
20
@someone I'd also like to add that I've had to discuss juice with my daughter's grandparents and great-grandparents. They all absolutely believe that juice is healthy.
17
@someone Yeah, that was called "Nana juice" when my kids were little and I couldn't ever get my Mom to cut the apple juice with water like we did.
3