Soooooo...Innocent Smoothies? Good for them or equivalent of Fruit Shoots?

[Teuch]

Bearing in mind I have limited access to fresh fruit and have only ever managed to make disgusting smoothies myself...

DS loves the innocent drinks, but I wonder how innocent they really are...

i am really interested to read this. i always assumed that smoothies were reasonably good for you, and often have the innocent ones. my dd is 17 mo and loves the ellas organic smoothie pouches. they are great for travelling etc. i thought this was a good thing for her to be into!

they are absorbed very quickly rather than being gradually absorbed is one reason why they are less good than a wholefood

if sugars starches etc are taken in already broken down then they are quickly absorbed and sugar peaks and troughs

so you get hungry again and more of what you take in is effectively wasted or you are tempted to eat/drink more

yes but for children who won't eat fruit they are a much better alternative than Coke. Aaaaaargh...

as part of a balanced diet they are a much more acceptable alternative than many kiddie drinks advertised and they count as one towards your 5 a day
and as for the calories children need calories to grow we see what we call muesli kids children who are underweight because their parents think that the messages about healthy eating primarily aimed at adults apply to small children too they don't
children need a much higher calorie diet than we do particularly small children

Only on MN would an Innocent smoothie be described as "Fruitshoot in Boden" Bigbadwulf.

But it's not the calories that are the problem with fruit drinks, it's the fact that all of them come from sugar. Seems extraordinary that a whole glass full of processed fruit is seen as OK, in a society that insists that children have semi-skimmed milk and low-fat cheese.

thats what i was saying

yes of course everyone needs calories but some options provide better calories than others

and smoothies are not always the best option

tho sometimes..in a certain context..they might be the better option

and quite a lot of people regard smoothies and other drinks as not part of what they account for when looking at their food intake

hidden calories and all that

OrmIrian - do you ever bake cakes with your children?

Yes. What has that got to do with it?

Look. Fruit is made of sugar. Fruit is bad for your teeth. So let's drink Coke instead? No one is saying smoothies are better than fruit but they are a good second option if your child doesn't eat fruit. And quite frankly if you are an adult that needs to watch calories a fruit smoothie is going to be the least of your troubles. And they provide useful vitamins and minerals. Yes the sugar from smoothies is processed by the body more quickly than it is from whole fruit. But you simply cannot compare it to Coke or Fruit Shoots. I mean dieticians are not nutritionists. The hospital dietician wanted to give my ds artificial sweeteners in a formula rather than have me breastfeeding in hospital. I'm really sceptical about these current soundbites.

aw shucks.

i wouldnt give children undiluted fruit juice either..i would use that in the same kind of dilution as squash

Well I just think it is astonishing and totally contradictory that you are deriding fruit smoothies and yet would feed your child say...flapjack

(I happen to think there is nothing wrong with either in moderation although the smoothie offers more nutritional benefit)

((slit wrists emoticon))

(goes to feed son toast with lashings of real, sugary strawberry jam)

(Goes away amicably scratching head in a 'it doesn't compute' kind of way)

orm children under 2 should have full fat dairy products and they should have them up to 5 if the rest of their diet is poor

one small cup diluted for dd (5) every day
ds1 14 gets one small glass of his one msot days.
Me and dp have one glass at weekend
None of us ever ever touch soft drinks or coke - and the kids and us eat plenty of fresh fruit and veg and eat very healthy diets.

As part of that diet works very well.

Coke is evil evil shit

zippi ooh you are marvellous on this thread. I agree with Zippi. All of it.

10 / 10 ers know their fruit

can I just say that I don't have access to good quality fresh fruit, although DS good with apples, pears, grapes, blueberries and any orange type thing...but his appetite is small, and he eats NO veg!

In the original post, I really wondered whether an innocent smoothie (most days probably) was a good option...

I know that fresh fruit would be the best option!!

franny

methinks it is rather like the adult chatroom thread lol

Sorry, am I being a bit thick here (same as usual thn?) but isn't the natural sugar in a smoothie not the same thing at all as a big sugar rush u get from coke or fruit shoot?