Sugar Content In Kids Fruit Juices Alarming

Supposedly healthy children’s fruit juices, drinks and smoothies apparently have very high levels of sugar, with more than a quarter of products either having the same amount or more than Coca Cola (which has five teaspoons per 200ml). Drinking such juices could mean your children have to visit one of the dentists Manchester has available a lot more often as so much sugar can do real damage to their teeth.

According to Action on Sugar, fruit juice doesn’t have to be so sweet and there are options out there with a lot less sugar. Innocent 100% Apple Juice for Kids, for example, has 32 per cent less sugar than Morrison’s Apple Juice From Concentrate.

The organisation further observed that UK guidelines stating that a 150ml glass of unsweetened 100 per cent fruit juice counts as one of your five a day is incorrect and should be withdrawn as a recommendation.

Campaign director of Action on Sugar Katharine Jenner advised parents to feed their children fruit, rather than allow them to drink juice. “[This] should be an occasional treat, not an everyday drink,” she continued. “These processed drinks are laden with sugar and calories, and do not have the nutritional benefits of fresh fruit and vegetables.”

To take in less sugar, consider diluting fruit juice with water, only allowing children to drink them at meal times and buying only unsweetened juices.

This comes after Public Health England found that too many sugar drinks and food has resulted in 12 per cent of three year olds in the UK suffering from tooth decay, suggesting that parents need to be more careful about what they give their offspring.