To juice or not to juice: Should kids REALLY be drinking fruit juice?

Posted in Nutrition.
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Have you ever clicked over to Google and typed in a health-related question concerning your child? And then been faced with a whole bunch of confusing and often contradictory responses? Argh! We’ve been there too, so we created Ain’t That The Truth – a brand new podcast that debunks the myths and sets the facts straight.

Ain’t That The Truth LIVE on Facebook

Our brilliant podcast host Sarah Hunstead is an author, paediatric emergency nurse and vocal advocate for child safety and children’s health.

In other words, she’s a highly trained, very experienced local expert. Sarah’s not only ready to sort evidence-based fact from fiction and answer all your curly questions, she’s also going LIVE each Tuesday at 1.30pm on Babyology’s Facebook page to do just that.

To juice or not to juice?

This week, Sarah and Babyology editor Livia Gamble discussed the pros and cons of fruit juice, fielding real-time questions from parents – and getting to the heart of juice and kids.

So what did we find out about juice from Sarah? Plenty!

“What we know is that breastfeeding, milk [or formula] and water are the best things that children can drink,” Sarah began. “Juice can be quite acidic, it can be quite high in sugar and it can be really bad for kids’ teeth.”

“When you compare fruit juice to eating a whole piece of fruit, the fruit juice is missing a lot of fibre,” Sarah notes, highlighting that actual fruit is always a better option.

EDITORIAL: Girl eating apple

Too much, too soon

Sarah says that over-consumption can be a problem with fruit juice fans too.

“You can consume a lot of juice, in comparison to eating fruit itself. So for example, you couldn’t eat seven apples, but you could easily down the juice of seven apples.”

“Juice should be the exception, rather than the rule,” Sarah says, explaining that kids don’t need to drink juice daily and that the Australian dietary guidelines suggest no more than half a cup of juice a day for a toddler.

Babyology Live Chat: Myth-busting kids healthLIVE CHAT with paediatric emergency nurse and founder of CPR Kids, Sarah Hunstead about kids nutrition – and the pros and cons of fruit juice, in particular.For more mythbusting about kids' health, be sure to check out Ain't That The Truth, our new weekly podcast with Sarah – available now wherever you get your podcasts! > http://bit.ly/2J6GQTI

Posted by Babyology on Monday, 9 July 2018

Organic, veggie, fruit, oh my!

Sarah advises reading juice package labels very closely, and never assuming that an ‘organic’ sticker means that the juice is good for your child.

“You can get ‘organic fruit drinks’ or ‘organic fruit juice'” Sarah points out. “Any ‘fruit drink’ may only have 5 percent juice in it, so there could be sugar, flavourings, all sorts of other things put in there. But a 100 percent juice is something that doesn’t have any other additives.” Look a little more closely at the ingredients, Sarah suggests.

Asked whether 100 percent vegetable juices are a good option for kids, Sarah said the research tells us “YES!” Vegetable juice is full of goodness – although not as much as actual whole vegetables – but Sarah says the real struggle might be convincing your child to drink it!

Head over to Babyology’s Facebook page at 1.30pm each Tuesday to join the Ain’t That The Truth Facebook Live chat with Sarah and Livia. Remember you can email us with questions about children’s health too. Send your questions to podcast@babyology.com.au

For more research-backed real talk about kids’ health issues, Subscribe to Ain’t That The Truth, a Babyology podcast. Listen in through your usual podcast app – or online. 


Listen to Ain’t That The Truth or subscribe on iTunesStitcher or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also follow Babyology on Facebook and Instagram for more fantastic podcasts (and competitions!)

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