Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay
by Elizabeth Meyer, LRD
“Can we get juice?” a little voice asks… “Umm…when have we EVER bought juice?!” I respond.
“But I want to grow!” Uffda. I saved my speech (for the time being) on how important a healthy diet is.
I have never bought juice so I can’t help but laugh every time I get asked this at the store. Still, people are shocked when I say no. I’ve made it clear it’s just not something I’m going to buy. Ever. It’s the one thing I have a hard rule on when it comes to food. We never had juice in the house growing up. Maybe I’m just internally mad about that! 😊
It's full of sugar, it doesn’t have any nutritional value, and servings are almost always way too big. When you eat fruit, you’re getting more nutrients, you’re getting fiber and it registers in your brain that you are eating because you have to work to chew that fruit. Calories we drink don’t always register in our brains.
Our kids don’t need juice. Our toddlers don’t need juice. They just don’t. In my opinion it’s no different than giving them pop. How often are you giving your kids regular pop? Generally, we’re not, because we know it’s a treat and not necessary for good nutrition.
It’s no secret we eat too much sugar. This goes for our kids too. There’s sugar everywhere. Can you avoid it? No. I’m not going to tell you to. But there are a lot of foods we can learn to avoid or eat less often.
The recommendation for sugar consumption for kids is 6 tsp/day. That’s 25 grams. That's not a whole lot. Do you know how much sugar ½ cup of OJ has?? 23 grams! TWENTY-THREE. In a half a cup. When was the last time you poured only a half a cup? You might have, if you have your grandma’s old juice glasses that only allow for a half a cup. But did you refill it?
Let’s look at a few more things:
- 1 tbsp syrup: 14 grams sugar
- 2 tbsp peanut butter: 2 grams sugar
- 2 tbsp Nutella: 20 grams sugar
- ½ cup instant oatmeal: 12 grams sugar
- 1 ¼ cup Cotton Candy Cap’n Crunch (I got suckered into this at the store BY MYSELF. Oops): 17 grams sugar
- Trix yogurt: 13 grams sugar
- Oats and Honey granola bar: 11 grams sugar
- 2 Eggo Waffles: 2 grams sugar, but then you add 1 tbsp syrup at 14 grams sugar or 2 tbsp peanut butter at 2 grams sugar or 2 tbsp Nutella at 20 grams sugar
You get my point. Its easy to be over the recommended limit of sugar by breakfast. So, what can you do?
The easiest thing you can do is read labels. Start in your pantry. Work to the grocery store. Educate yourselves. Educate your kids. There are easy changes you can make once you realize where you’re getting extra added sugars. I’m not concerned about sugar in milk, or in fruit, I’m not even so concerned about the sugar in yogurt because yogurt is providing us so much more like protein and calcium.
Extra sugar in our diet is contributing to weight gain and obesity in kids. This never used to be a thing. Diabetes in kids is now a thing. That’s scary stuff. We eat too much, and we eat the wrong foods.
I’m not asking you to fear sugar. Awareness is what I’m looking for. You can become more aware of extra sugar in our foods. Our kids are counting on us to keep them healthy. It takes a group effort and a lot of learning. But we can do this.
Meyer is a licensed registered dietitian. Her posts appear monthly on OYT.