Should you give fruit juice to your child?
Too much fruit juice can contribute to health problems for your child. Water remains the healthiest drink for children.
Parents know that five servings of fruit a day are an important addition to the diet of children, but what about fruit juice?
Fruit juice, contrary to popular belief, is not “natural”. It’s processed food. The processing has altered the natural food balance by removing the pulp, rind, peel, seeds, and other elements of the natural fruit in order to concentrate the sweet juice. In addition, when we process fruit, we lose many of the important nutrients that are contained in the whole fruit.
Here’s what you should know before introducing fruit juice to your toddler.
The high-sugar content of fruit juice
The most serious issue with fruit juice is the amount of sugar it contains. To put it simply, fruit juice is sugar water. It’s not healthier because the sugar comes from an apple/orange/pear/whatever. Sugar cubes and high fructose corn syrup are also derived from plants, and no one disputes that they are unsafe for children.
Even “all-natural” fruit juices are high in sugar. This is because fruit naturally contains sugar.
When you look at the nutrition facts for fruit juice, you’ll notice that a small cup has roughly 120 calories. That’s 20% more than the same volume of sugar-loaded sodas and nearly 10% of the daily calories required by a three-year-old, with virtually no nutritional value.
Good to know: Although vegetable juices do not contain as much sugar as fruit juices, they do include a lot of salt.
Fruit juice is linked to tooth decay
Sugar isn’t the only thing that can harm your teeth. Citrus juices such as orange, grapefruit, and lemonade can erode dental enamel. According to studies, drinking orange juice on a regular basis diminishes the hardness of tooth enamel by approximately 84 percent.
If your child doesn’t brush their teeth immediately after drinking fruit juice, the juice can remain on their teeth all day (or night) and cause cavities. Even if the juice is diluted with water, it is still bad for their teeth, all the more so because they sip it over time rather than swallowing it all at once.
Other health implications of fruit juice
Too much fruit juice might cause diarrhoea. It has been linked to unhealthy weight gain and obesity (which leads to type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and a lot of other bad stuff).
Furthermore, it has relatively little nutritional value. Some juices contain vitamins A and C, as well as vitamin D and calcium. However, if you offer your children a well-balanced diet, they should obtain plenty of these nutrients just by eating.
