To wonder who is drinking sugary drinks with their dinner

[Seventy6]

Govt advice is that families should have a jug of water on the table at dinner time. Do people really have sugary or even fizzy drinks with their meal?

[Bunbaker]

"or doesn't drink with meals at all (now that is really odd)."

I don't feel thirsty when eating, but always want a hot drink afterwards.

[Sicaq]

Is squash that bad? Made properly it's pretty much just flavoured water.

[PedlarsSpanner]

Currently we are having home made elderflower cordial with fizzy water with supper

#poncetastic

[LaurieFairyCake]

Half of Europe is drinking sugary drinks with dinner

Wine!

[Sicaq]

I rarely drink with meals - maybe that's why I can believe OP when she says she doesn't see this. Tea or coffee after, but nothing whilst eating. I was raised with the folk belief that drinking whilst eating gives you indigestion.

[unrealhousewife]

The dentist told us to, it's better than having them between meals.

[ExcuseTypos]

Siqaq have you looked at the ingredients in squash?

It's full of rubbish.

[trixymalixy]

DH and I have water, tea or wine with our meal. The kids have water, milk, fruit juice or squash.

We occasionally will have some Coke or lemonade, but less than once a month.

[Sicaq]

I must admit I haven't, ExcuseTypos I don't buy it myself. It just looks ... watery.

[treaclesoda]

the diluting juice in our house has only fruit juice and sugar in the ingredients. Maybe a preservative. Granted it's far from being health food, and it's not ideal, but it's also not full of random crap either.

[JassyRadlett]

Do those saying the govt / others shouldn't be getting involved in their lives think that principle extends to state-funded healthcare?

I'm of the view that preventive medicine is a really positive thing. And if part of that includes helping debunk the myth that fruit juices are inherently healthy, and somehow not 'sugary', then I'm all for it.

[ExcuseTypos]

I know some have not much added to them but a lot of them do have additives/colours etc, some have sweeteners too.

[pictish]

And they're delicious.

[lowcarbforthewin]

The thing I hate about this campaign is that lots of people will go 'oh but I only have fizzy drinks once a day, and none of us are fat so we'll carry on' or whatever. I wish they were focusing on health, not just obesity. It's perfectly possible to be thin and unhealthy and there is growing evidence excessive sugar is linked to Alzheimers, as well as heart disease and diabetes. Even if your child, it's still important to limit sugary drinks. And excessive sugar = not that much!

I love juice, but it has been easier than I thought cutting it out. But then I'm not trying to persuade my children to just drink water. I can see it could be really hard.

Whilst the gov are obviously telling us to think about sugar and calories in what we drink, that is only a small part of the picture. If you eat very healthily and drink squash then you are very healthy. If you eat high fat and high sugar processed food all day then drinking water will only make a small difference.

I think actually, what they are doing is really important. It's so easy to think you are eating a healthy diet, and actually the reverse is true. Because there has been this push of five a day, people have been having fruit juices, sugary fruit yogurts, sugary tomato sauces in their diet and thinking they are healthy. It's just as important to make people aware of hidden sugars as saying 'don't eat junk'.

[gotnotimeforthat]

Where i come from the water is really hard well in comparison to where i used to live anyway. because of this I only drink water out of the filtered jug in the fridge.But I will drink coke or fanta or sometimes fizzy flavoured water with my meal.

I don't actually know anyone (that i can think of) that only drinks water with their meals.

[KirjavaTheCat]

You can't have a takeaway without a can of coke, imo.

[whatever5]

I prefer water to sugary drinks including juice. However, I can't see that it is a huge problem to have fruit juice or another sugary drink with a meal. If you are going to have a sugary drink it's better for your teeth to have it at the same time as food than between meals.

[RufusTheReindeer]

When I was little you had a cup of tea with your tea

My dad had five sugars and my brother three

I drink water with my meals unless it is a pub meal or a takeaway that just cries out for a beer

Ds1 has squash or fruit juice, the other two have water. Unless we are at the pub (or nannies) when they have coke

[RufusTheReindeer]

I don't like squash or very many drinks at all

I also don't really like mixing flavours, i think drinking a strong flavour affects the flavour of food, like eating chocolate makes coffee taste funny

[unrealhousewife]

Lowcarbnation I agree that it's a good thing for the government to wean us off sugar by replacing it with water, but they have been doing this ever since my 16 year old was a toddler.

It makes very little difference. What really makes a difference is the price of sugar. If it went up to ten pounds a kilo we just wouldn't buy it in the first place.

[Bunbaker]

"You can't have a takeaway without a can of coke, imo."

Of course you can. It's just a habit. I quite like the odd Coke, but rarely drink it because it rarely occurs to me to do so, simply because I am not in the habit of drinking it. Tea, on the other hand...

[bauhausfan]

My two drink squash (with sugar and no sweeteners in it) because the eldest has epilepsy and is a water refuser.

[CoffeeTea103]

Listen to your husband, he seems like a wise man.

[rubadubstylee]

jennyontheblocks is bossing this thread

[Chocotrekkie]

Me and DH have diet coke with dinner every day.

Kids have squash, milk, fruit juice, fizzy orange, lemonade , milkshakes - whatever they want. They drink water if they want to.

It's our choice - we don't really drink alcohol, have never smoked.

Our bad habit is a fizzy drink.