To give my 2-year-old a smoothie every day?

[stopgap]

I've read a lot of threads recently about the downsides of fruit intake, rotting teeth, and drinking through straws. Now I wonder if giving my son a smoothie every dayin his straw cupis such a good idea. Typically the smoothie involves:

Hemp milk
Strawberries or blueberries
Cashew butter
Banana

My son has never had cow's milk, and the hemp milk is a great source of calcium, so I'm disinclined to stop, but then I wonder about the teeth issue...

Water is his only other drink. Maybe I'll reduce the smoothie ritual to twice a week. He does like other snacks--olives, crackers, hummus, pinto beans, edamame etc. Trouble is, I love an afternoon smoothie!

UniqueandAmazing I'm lactose intolerant, so only buy sheep milk products. I've tried foisting regular cow's milk stuff on him, but he knows the difference and won't touch it.

Your smoothie sounds bloody healthy to me but I had my kids in the 90's when a fruit shoot type drink was almost considered a health drink!

I have never heard of hemp milk or cashew butter. I think your son will be fine. As long as you clean his teeth twice daily they will be fine too.

I also thought that straws were better as the liquid goes right to the back of the mouth rather than swilling round the teeth.

I think his smoothies sound lovely and I would carry on without a worry, tbh. Of all the crap he could be eating, a fruit and nut butter smoothie wouldn't even dink on my radar!

Thanks Unique and BCBG

Stopgap - if you're lactose intolerant, you shouldn't be using sheep milk either - cheese is ok because virtually all the lactose has gone, and yoghurts ferment much of it into lactic acid - but sheep milk still contains lactose.

Cheese and yoghurt aren't necessarily made from cow's milk. We eat cheese every day and none of it is made from cow's milk.

Wtf is edemame? Is this some stealth boast thread to name drop as many healthy, weird foods that your DC eats into your post?

As far as i can see you sons diet is exemplary. Mine grew up on a diet of ham on white bread, crisps and haribo (along with fruit, veg and other healthy stuff too obviously).

Just keep on doing what you are doing. It sounds great.

It doesn't completely remove fibre. The vitamins in the fruit will still be present and benefits of hemp milk. Try giving it to him in a straw but make sure it's in his mouth not towards his teeth. Maybe not every day but still beneficial. Processed ones even when have no additives are basically sugar though.

Not great. You are essentially breaking down the fruit by blending it, so it's digested extremely quickly giving a very quick blood glucose rise. Far better to eat the fruit and let it digest slowly in the stomach.

I think blending can also affect the fibre content by its action.

It is also high calorie content for what is effectively a quick drink. If you were to eat the same amount of fruit and drink the milk separately you would be far more likely to feel that you had had a substantial snack, and therefore more satisfied.

It sounds like quite a lot of fruit in a day with the whole fruits he eats too. Could you change some for raw veggies?

Unreasonable, no

If you are one of those people who is concerned to get optimum nutrition out of every morsel, then perhaps serving those foods separately is strictly better (although to get the cashew butter and the hemp milk in you need also to eat a bowl of muesli and a bit of toast, which a 2 year old might not need)

But since when was food only about that? Eating should give you pleasure as well. Have a smoothie every day if it makes you happy (so long as it is part of a balanced diet).

goes off to have a diet coke and a packet of french fries

littlewhitebag, they're soy beans. They're a bogstandard snack in any convenience store here (I'm in New York).

Should add that I often make him pancakes for breakfast, and Saturdays are for pizza and chips, so it's not all lentils tossed in macrobiotic flim-flam.

Thumbwitch, sheep's milk products are totally fine for me. Goat milk is an issue (which is weird, because I think goat milk has lower lactose content than sheep).

AH ok. I am in Scotland - home of the deep fried mars bar. I suspect we have our healthy food bars set at very different heights!

PS I'm originally from Wigan, so I suspect our fundamentals are very similar .

My dad is itching to get a meat and potato pasty down my son's neck.

is fruit and veg cheap over there op?

Meat and potato pasty sounds lovely!

Seriously though. It sounds like you have your DS's best interests at heart. His diet sounds very healthy. I am sure his daily smoothie will be fine.

"
try not to mush up food at all, because the nutrients are in the solidity."

What does this even mean?

Also, I don't think you can be lactose intolerant if you can tolerate sheep's milk......

HeySoulSister, Whole Foods aside, it's definitely cheaper to buy fruit here than it is in the UK. My local supermarket is a NY institution, and even the organic produce is well-priced. I remember thinking, on my last trip home, that the conventional stuff in Asda was far pricier.

For the really cheap stuff, there are street vendors selling fruit and vegetables, and the quality is usually great.

That's interesting, curlew. At one point I couldn't eat dairy in any form, but I started eating these yoghurts a couple of years agoafter reading their blurb about lactose on the back of the potand now I'm well and truly addicted:

www.blacksheepcheese.com/nutrition/

My DS doesn't eat any fruit apart from smoothies and the fruit puree pouches. So I won't be stopping 'mushed fruit' any time soon.

Mmmm. your smoothies sound lovely. I think I might start having one myself for breakfast !

Mm, lucky you, fruit/veg street vendors in London are very hit and miss as well as being pricey. I think I would stick with the smoothie routine if that works for you - I understand what others have said about fibre breakdown/sugar spike but I can't believe it would make that much difference in an otherwise healthy and varied diet.

Oh and PS, if your two year old is anything like mine, he/she will have moved on to some other favourite item in a month or two and smoothies will be a thing of the past.

Ooh, I love edamame - got used to them as an evening snack with a Sapporo beer in Japan. Shame they're not easily available in the pods here - they are lovely !
Time the supermarkets got on to that one I reckon. And really fresh tofu too.