Innocent smoothies for kids. Please xplain to me whether its true and how good they are??

[TrinityRhinosDhWonHerAnIPOD]

dd2 who has a very limited diet and I thought she would yuk at one of these has told me 'it's yummy good mummy'

so is it worth me shelling out so she can have one a day or every other day

we get them for the boys they enjoy the flavor and if I am going to give them a drink of orange juice or apple juice I might as well give them one of these.

I think there was a thread on this yesterday will try and find it.

We like them but expensive !

Ah Trinity did you miss the recent furore on mn about the high sugar level of smoothies?

I think they are good personally, (and even better if had alongside carbs and on the understanding they are not as good as actually fruit)

here discussion from yesterday

They are just fruit pureed up really. Ideally fruit is better as it has more roughage but if your dd likes them and she really doesn't eat much other fruit they are a pretty good way of getting some into her.

Agree they are very expensive though !.DS like them but he only get one every other day or so.

I make my own sometimes. (Sainsbury's also do a frozen smoothie mix)

DD1 loves them and isn't a great eater - espesh at breakfast - so I do shell out. Think they are a good product - obviously better to make them yourself but who can be arsed with the washing up and vast quantities of fruit required?! Fruit would be ideal but DD1 just won't consume that much and I think a smoothie is at least 1 of the 5 a day that I endeavour to get into her...

I get these for ds1 who eats no fruit. They are delicious and he does drink them. But there was a big thing in the Guardian the other day saying that fruit was over-rated! And that the pureed fruits in smoothies were really not that healthy because their 'pre-digestion' by means of blending into a goo means that you get a big sugar 'spike' instead of slow-released sugar. Also said that other than vitamin C there isn't anything to write home about.

no chance of making your own trin?

you need

a stick blender (£10)

some frozen fruit (£2? for enough for quite a lot of smoothies. There usually seems to be some sort of offer on these)

some yoghurt

milk

whizz it all up

Drink

The End

(oh you can defrost the fruit first if you have fussiness about such things. Also-you can use ripe (ie market stall cheap) bananas which haven't been frozen)

It tastes better than innocent stuff IMO. It keeps in the fridge for a day or two.

I don't think Innocent stuff actually has added sugar, but fruit juice is quite high in sugar. OTOH, at least with the actual smoothies (as opposed to the juices) you are getting the whole fruit.

I give up
anything and everything I try and find that might help the health of my children in a small way working with what I've got turns into shit
It doesn't matter what it is
it always has a problem and we shouldn't be doing it
I cannot cope with it all anymore
so apparently what I thought was a carton of fruit that has been whizzed is akin to giving her a glass of coke
great
I give up

where are you buying your blenders from Filly - they are £4 in Asda

Trinity of course it is better than coke. It has vitamins in ffs

you do definately get a sugar spike off the innocent ones, but you do off all smoothies IMO.

My blood sugar is appallingly sensitive when I am pg or bf and I have to stick to a very low gi diet. I cannot drink smoothies at all, otherwise I feel very odd. But also I cannot drink juice, coffee, or much aside from water really.

If you give your kids juice, I really wouldn't worry about substituting smoothies.

actually I've never bought a blender, I googled.

there you go trinity-for the price of a large tetrapack of smoothie, you can buy a blender...

I have a stick blender
I have a saturday market for fresh fruit
I could buy the frozen
I could even make them every other day and pop in the fridge

then I pour it into a glass and dd2 will go 'yuk mummy, no like it'

its my fault, I know, but she will drink things from a carton because she thinks its juice IYSWIM
If i make it she refses it

Don't worry Trinity smoothies really aren't any worse than the odd cake etc and in fact waaay better because of the nutrients and vitamins.

But no, you are right you cannot ever never win. You may as well accept you are and always will be, wrong (according to somone somewhere!)

My ds loves the Ella Kitchen Fruit pouches not sure if they are any better than the smoothies but he has one a day and loves it and they look like they are marginally less messy than the smoothies if squirted too!

I think non processed is always going to be better but I think these have to be better than most processed things. (Is it not similar to dried fruit being concentrated sugars but still better than sweets?)

Innocent Smoothies are a good occasional and convenient snack if you are out and about.

But not really a good idea at home - children ought to be eating whole fruit.

And how nice to have perfect children who happily eat whatever is put in front of them, Anna888. Give your child smoothies, Trinity, you are a good mother doing a tough job, and just ignore the smug, holier-than-thou comments that try to make you feel bad. Yestreday's thread made me feel so with all the ill-informed rubbish being spouted about smoothies and coke being equally bad. As if toxic chemical crap is worse for your kids than whizzed up fruit.

Rant over.

I'm sure that a portion of smoothie a day is accepted to be a A Good Thing. It's just that you can substitute all fruit intake for smoothies. There's nothing wrong with a hit of naturally occuring fruit sugars, surely.

For 'can', read 'can't'. Doh!

thanks for that anna

exactly threadie
I dont think there is anything wrong with a fruit sugar hit ata ll
When I started this thread I was really meaning
Are they really only fruit?

mine have them in their lunchboxes

they have a pieceo f fruit as well

they think tehy are a great treat like sweets so its a win win

'Children ought to be....'

PMSL

I am so glad I wasn't on that thread
I would have felt like a really really crap mum

even more so than I already do