I am a water drinker.  I don’t need fruit or sweetened beverages, but my family enjoys them. They like a little flavor as they hydrate,  which is fine, but it needs to be balanced with water drinking too.  Too much juice or sweetened beverages is not good for you or your children.

Is juice bad for kids?

A common parenting mistake is to give children too much juice to drink, especially toddlers.  Since juice comes from fruit (and vegetables), parents think they are giving their children a healthy beverage.

In moderation, juice is fine for children; however, juice does contain calories without the fiber of the actual fruit.  When children fill up on juice, they are likely to skip eating food that is more nutritious, as well as not drink enough water.

The American Academy of Pediatrics identifies 4 reasons to avoid serving fruit juice to your child:

• diarrhea
• cavities
• malnourishment
• obesity

The Mayo Clinic recommends:

To ensure your child isn’t drinking too much juice, follow these limits from the American Academy of Pediatrics:

• Birth to 6 months. No fruit juice, unless it’s used to relieve constipation.
• 6 to 12 months. If juice is given, limit it to 4 to 6 ounces (118 to 177 milliliters) and serve it in a cup (not a bottle) to avoid tooth decay.
• 1 to 6 years. Up to 6 ounces (177 milliliters) a day.
• 7 years and older. Up to 12 ounces (355 milliliters) a day.

Six ounces (177 milliliters) of 100 percent fruit juice equals one serving of fruit. Juice lacks the fiber of whole fruit, however, and can be consumed more quickly. Although a reasonable amount of fruit juice each day is fine for most children, remember that whole fruit is an even better option.

If you choose to give your child fruit juice, choose 100 percent fruit juice instead of sweetened juice or fruit-juice cocktails. While 100 percent fruit juice and sweetened fruit drinks might have similar amounts of calories, your child will get more vitamins and nutrients and fewer additives from 100 percent juice.

Although the Mayo Clinic does not recommend fruit juice drinks over drinking 100% juice, we were sent a product that is low in calorie and low on the glycemic index with less calories than juice.

[amazon_link id=”B008758SEK” target=”_blank” ]LO real fruit blend beverages[/amazon_link] have only 45 calories, 10 grams of carbs, and 9 grams of sugar.  These drinks are 70-75% organic.  Sweetened with stevia and agave, LO beverages have only 5-21% juice from concentrate. The rest is mostly water. They are GMO-free and do not contain any preservatives.

New! Lo, Low Glycemic Real Fruit Beverage, highly anticipated, healthy and delicious. Made from Real Fruit, Blue Organic Agave Nectar and Stevia. With Lo, making the healthy beverage choice is easy. Improve your life and enjoy four fantastic flavors!

Get healthy with Lo as part of your low glycemic diet. Originally developed as a tool to help diabetics manage blood sugar control, the glycemic index has found its way into the mainstream weight loss market.

Of course, LO beverages are great for people of all ages. They are even great in cocktails, which you can tell by some of the flavor names!

LO comes in four flavors:  [amazon_link id=”B00KC60U5M” target=”_blank” ]Pomegranate [/amazon_link], [amazon_link id=”B00S5FAWF0″ target=”_blank” ]Pomegranate Mojito [/amazon_link],[amazon_link id=”B008746D8O” target=”_blank” ]Mango Mojito[/amazon_link], and [amazon_link id=”B00N20IIR2″ target=”_blank” ]Acai-Blue[/amazon_link].

The vitamin content on LO is not as high as it is for fruit juice, but I would rather my children eat the fruit and get the fiber with the vitamins rather than drink all those vitamins.

My children do drink a lot of water.  When they want something more, I feel better when they grab a juice drink like these with a low glycemic index rather than an organic soda. Fortunately, they make a lot of smoothies so they get the best of both worlds (vitamins and fiber!)!

I’ve never worried about them drinking too much juice or juice beverages, as we don’t keep them stocked in our home.  Just remember, hydration is important, and water is the most effective means of hydration.  Flavored drinks are a treat, just like mama’s cocktails 🙂

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