Once upon a time ago I used to be a BIG juice drinker, in fact when I was pregnant with my first my husband will tell you that I went through about 1/2 gallon of orange juice a day. Today I just can’t imagine drinking that much juice in one day. After I had my Pi and started reading on child nutrition, books like Natural Baby Food Cookbook and Dr. Sears Nutrition Book. I learned that processed juice was not a good food source for our babies or ourselves.
- Juice is very filling and as it turns out is full of empty calories and sugar. Empty calories in a little one’s tummy are not good, the fill up the tummy and leave little room for real food, food that delivers much needed nutrients that help a body grow properly.
- My kids did not see juice until they were more than 1 year old, and at that time it was the recommended 4 oz. a day diluted with water. But somewhere along the line I read that Hibiscus and Rose Hip teas, such as those made by Celestial Seasonings Zinger Teas contain MORE vitamin C than a glass of orange juice. About the time PI was 2 years old we switched her off of her 4 oz. of juice a day to zinger teas, My two youngest barely saw any juice at all. They have been raised on teas.
- Many juices are sweetened with HFCS (high fructose corn syrup). HFCS contributes to wild blood sugar swings.
- Most juice you will find on the shelves is pasteurized and has added ingredients to stabilize it’s shelf life. Do you really want to put beetle shell in your body?
- Fruit juice can cause problems such as obesity, dental cavities, diarrhea, and other intestinal problems such as gas, bloating and abdominal pain.
- The sugar in juice can also affect your immune system as it causes white blood cells to stop working as effectively as they should.
So what do we drink instead?
- Water – lots of it. Sometimes we get tired of it so we add flavor via limes or lemons.
- Herbal Teas and teas with Hibiscus and Rose Hips, my kids learn to drink these straight without added sweeteners, so when they have a cold they are reluctant to add honey. They would rather take a spoonful of honey than adulterate their tea
- Green Tea – I recently stopped drinking coffee, and began drinking Green Tea,
- Kombucha – I got up the courage to try this all natural drink this summer, lets just say I am hooked. I loove some natural effervescence, read bubbles, and since I am not a fan of yogurt it is a great way to get those probiotics into me.
Now we do occasionally juice our own juice here at home, but for the most part the above drinks do quench our thirst.
What is your favorite thirst quencher?
This post is linked up with Monday Mania , Living Well Blog Hop, Fat Tuesday
Technorati Tags: juice drinking,real food.
11 comments:
Thank you for this. My family does the same. I love Strand Tea which I order from Azure Standard and flavour it with Stevia only when visiting kids are here (they don't understand unsweetened drinks). I also make Kombucha and love it. Thanks for the inspiration :) love you blog <3
Sarah, thanks for chiming in. I agree, if kids grow up with unsweetened drinks they are used to it. My kids will even take herbal tea to school, iced if it is hot and hot if it is cold. My mom says it is too much, but she is not making the tea. My kids now make their own tea. They are 13, 11, and 7. I hardly think that my electric tea kettle gets a break.
I am going to try zinger tea. I always said I would not give my son juice, and then he was sick when he was maybe 18 months old or so, and I gave him Capri Suns to get him to drink something, and then we had to add juice to his water or he wouldn't drink anything. I'm such a sucker.
But my BIL sent me an article once about how sugar in liquid form is so much worse than sugar in solid, granulated form. I forget why. But he has now sworn off juice too!
Tmuffin, try the zinger teas. My kids and I loove them. If your son likes things sweet add a little honey, local of course, only if he is over 1 year old. You can always reduce the amount of honey. It may take time but it can be done.
We don't drink Much juice either. My husband buys a litre of organic apple cider once a week and that's about it.
I am going to start giving them the zingers. I agree about Kombucha we are also huge keiffer fans here in the house. My kids love drinking that stuff. I'm really trying to steer them away from juices and thankfully they prefer milk and water over juice.
Nada - the organic apple cider sounds wonderful, especially this time of year.
Mom E - We just started drinking Kombucha, half of my kids like it, the others don't NOT like it. In other words it is not bad, to quote my son. (the picky eater). Next on our list to try is keiffer. One of these days I will start making them too.
We're very fond of kombucha here! Everyone but my oldest son and my husband drink it.
My kids haven't gotten into herbal teas, though they like the kombucha made with a flavored orange tea that I was using up.
I swore off the Capri Sun this week, though I never buy them myself. We had lunch at my mils where the kids had Capri Sun. Ds5 and ds3 were bouncing off the walls afterwards. Even my teenager noticed, and he had been in school all day and didn't know about the Capri Sun.
If your little ones like fruit flavors there are plenty of "fruit" teas. I had to laugh last night at dinner. We had "Breakfast Night" and I was drinking some herbal "zinger" tea. Suddenly all of my kids wanted to make tea too.
We only drink juice that we have made ourselves and they contain mostly low glycemic vegetables. I haven't bought juice in years and my children drink water and some herbal teas instead.
Thanks for linking up to the Living Well Blog Hop!
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