what is it about Fruitshoot???

[3andnomore]

Now I know Sunny D is one of the worst things you can give to your child, and I know fruitshoot aint the perfect alternative (to water of freshly squeezed)...but am rather intrigued (sp?) about this whole fruit shoot hatred thing, lol...please...what is so seriously bad about them?
Like I saidm I don't tned to feed them to my Kids but they have had them!

Mountains of sugar

Additives, artificial sweeteners, just weird non-food ingredients that I'd rather not ingest.

Sugar not the problem as far as I'm concerned.

I was in a coffee shop today and saw a couple buy one pure orange (expensive type not from concentrate) for their little boy and a Fruit Shoot for their little girl. Was sitting watching and couldn't help wondering what the little girl had done to deserve the Fruit Shoot, then the father lashed out and slapped the little boy for making too much noise with the packet of crisps they had sneaked in so that sort of levelled things up .

It's the combination of aspartame and acesulfame-K I object to, and the fact that they are ruthlessly marketed at toddlers as a healthy, fruit-based alternative to the more obviously cruddy fizzy drinks.

Is fruitshoor worse/badder then Sunny D ?

fruitshoot even, lol

Also are any juices better and which...should one just stay clear of all juices other then fresshly squeezed?

My daughter drinks these all the time. Not at home but when we are out.

Call me ignorant, whatever but I had absolutely no idea that it had all the cr*p in it that it does. I just assumed the no added sugar one was ok to give her and maybe even good for her, i never thought to look at the label.

The thing I hate most about them is the philosophy rather than the ingredients.
They're no more inherently evil than Diet Coke but, as with Sunny D, they market themselves as healthy viable alternative to juice.
Which they're not.

My problem with fruit shoots is the way they are marketed and the fact that they are seen as okay to give to babies and toddlers. Why not just give them bottles of water? Obviously as the child gets older, they will cotton on to squash and the like, but you do see one year olds drinking them, and I always think why???? My three year old has just started to become aware that there is such a drink as squash, as she has been given them at birthday parties, she's never had a fruit shoot yet, but I know the day will come and that will be fine... she'll probably be about four by then, and when she asks I will allow her the odd one out and about, but I do dislike the way it is seen as perfectly acceptable / marketed to give such drinks to 1 year olds (and younger) when at that age, they have no real preference and will happily just drink water (if that is all you ever give them!)

List of ingredients in Robinson Fruitshoots:

Ingredients

Water, Strawberry juice,

Flavouring
Citric acid (found in citrus fruit like lemon and lime)

Acidity Regulator
Trisodium citrate (E331). Also known as sodium citrate and is the sodium salt of citric acid (in the same way that sodium chloride (i.e. table salt) is the salt of hydrochloric acid

Preservatives
Potasssium sorbate (E202), Potassium sorbate is the salt of potassium and sorbic acid. Sorbic acid occurs naturally in fruit, is obtained from the berries of mountain ash and is a natural preservative. It is also broken down in the body into carbon dioxide and water in the Kreb Cycle. The potassium salt is made because it is more soluble than sorbic acid.

Dimethyldicarbonate (E242), a preservative used to quell the problems caused by brettanomyces in wines

Sodium Benzoate (E211), It is found naturally in cranberries, prunes, greengage plums, cinnamon, ripe cloves, and apples.

Vitamins
(C, Niacin (B3), Pantothenic acid (B5), B6, D, B12),

Sweeteners (Aspartame, Acesulfame K)
Synthetic sugars replicating the sweetness of natural sugars

Stabiliser (Xanthan gum), is a naturally produced polysaccharide (produced by the fermentation of sucrose or glucose by a bacterium). Used to increase viscosity of fluids, used in salad dressings, sauces, toothpaste etc ? it holds colloids together.

Colour (Anthocyanins E163) Anthocyanins are plant pigment (pansies, petunia etc) and are powerful antioxidants (primitive man use to eat them). Besides chlorophyll, anthocyanins are probably the most important group of visible plant pigments. Used in food industry as natural colourants.

On that basis, I'd say it is not as bad as the food police make out, especially if you do not mind sweetners.

I personally do not buy this stuff because I think products like this are a waste of money, there is no real fruit in them (they should call them fruit flavoured)and so mislead the unsuspecting public into thinking they are actually giving their children fruit (I give my DTS real fruit to eat),the full sugar versions contain far too much sugar (just like all fizzy drinks) and the non-sugar versions contain sweetners, the taste of which I detest.

well,my dd2 bounces off walls after one!
she just goes off on one.
almost like a drunken adult to be honest....although she's very happy after one!

DD zoooooooooooooooooooms after em. I tried one once and went hyper too (and then had a huge mood crash)

That is likely to be down to the sugar if you use the full sugar versions. I also imagine that cheaper brands will use artificial colours rather than natural colourants and this sends a lot of kids hyper too.

Either way, I think all these products are a waste of money.

Fruit shoot isn't a juice, freshly squeezed or otherwise. It's a "juice drink", which is a whole other ball game. I don't think you need to get hung up on whether something is freshly squeezed or not, but look at whether it describes itself as "juice" or "juice drink", and read the list of ingredients. Decide for yourself what you are happy for your kids to have in their food and drink. For example, I won't give DS anything with artificial sweeteners in (actually, he rarely even has juice and normally just drinks water, but that's a side issue).

A bit of sugar is ok I would say, but as you all quite rightly say it's the additives. But aside from the scary ingredients, I don't like the way they have that teat-type spout thing at the top of the bottle. Must be so bad for little teeth.

Artificial sweeteners are banned from food that is specifically marketed at children under 3 but there doesn't seem to be any kind of legislation that requires them to say that products containing sweeteners aren't suitable for children under 3. Seems a bit ridiculous to me.

I personally would rather give my dcs a full sugar version than something that contains sweeteners. There's a lot of research that is starting to point to how bad sweeteners are for us and I prefer to brush their teeth extra well then fill them full of chemicals. They drink very diluted high juice or watered down fruit juice (100% juice stuff) or plain water. I'm not zealous about what they eat and drink but sweeteners are a real bug bear of mine.

Brushing doesn't help if they are drinking fresh juice (or any sugary drink) more than once a day. By all means avoid sweeteners if you wish, but don't underestimate the damage of sugary drinks - including freshly squeezed juice.

Well, speedymum thank you for that list of ingredients and the explanation...must say...my Kids don't really get these kind of drinks....they generally are very happy with tapwater...even my 10 year old....but they have had them of course...with their maccy d , which again is a treat not every day food...I hasten to add, lol....
As for whomever mentioned being annoyed at seeing 1 year olds with these...well...not sure how many Kids you have, but if there are older siblings and they have something then often the lil one will want it, too....doesn't mean though, that those Kids get them all the time!

I had a friend who swore that Sodium Benzoate caused her child problems. She said she was skeptical at first but cut it out and found the problems cleared up, she was convinced that it was bad for her child.

Also, wikipedia says that sodium benzoate, salt and Vitamin C like to combine to make benzene (carcinogen). I don't know enough chemistry, but it seems like a lot of the ingredients speedymama listed have sodium in them, and Vitamin C was deffo there, too.

You know, I'm not convinced by the "found in X" argument for a lot of these ingredients. Apples (particularly organic ones) contain all sorts of not-terribly-healthy things, or even healthy things you wouldn't want to have in large quantities.

All I know is when my mil gave dd a fruitshoot she was literally bouncing off the walls, never again. It did have the advantage of mil realising what I mean when I say don't give her crap it sends her hyper!

I wondered that about Anthocyanins. A lot of plant pigments are poisonous, or at least variable. E.g. I think Beta-carotene (another plant pigment, what makes carrots orange) can be good or bad for you, depending on the rest of your health. I think Beta carotene is quite bad for smokers, for instance.

Sure, like vitamin A (isn't it?) that isn't great in large quantities when you're pregnant. Actually, lots of vitamins and minerals, great as they are, can be dangerous in megadoses.

And that's without getting into the fact that you have all these highly processed ingredients, in a form totally alien to their original form, mixed with other ingredients from other things ... who knows about the interactions?

I'm not saying a single fruitshoot will make anyone fall down dead, but it's clearly not food, is it.