Hi
I had a great time doing a web chat with the net mums members this morning – thank you to all those who joined in. I hope I managed to answer
all your questions but if you do have any more thoughts please email me
Julie@Juliedean.com or join my blog!
If you want to see the topics we covered today click here
I look forward to hearing from you!
Julie
I’ve noticed there has been some chat on Netmums around drinks for young children and in particular the value of Fruit Shoot. My heart goes out to mums over all the anguish around what to give young children to drink – we mums are meant to understand so much! I wish more communication was around when my girls were young – they are teenagers now so I should probably find a site to help me!
As the qualified nutritionist for Britvic, the company that makes Fruit Shoot, I’m keen to help other mums understand more about what is in our products so they can make informed decisions. I’ve noticed lots of the mums on netmums are worried about aspartame which is completely understandable as there’s so much confusing information out there!
In actual fact the sweetener aspartame is one of the most thoroughly tested ingredients of all time and in over 30 years of scientific tests no conclusive evidence has been uncovered to suggest any link to health problems. As recently as June this year, another major report on the effects of aspartame by the European Food Safety Association has once again given it the all clear.
In reality aspartame brings nothing new to the diet. It is made up of two amino acids –which are the building blocks of protein – and you will find these amino acids naturally occurring in many foods. The amino acids are incredibly sweet – in fact these same amino acids are found naturally occurring in breast milk and they contribute to its sweetness.
It’s understandable that despite this reassurance some mums out there might still feel uncomfortable giving their kids any food or drink containing aspartame. Those mums might be interested to know that Fruit Shoot Regular and our 100% range of pure juices (Fruit Shoot 100%) do not contain any aspartame and none of the products across the Fruit Shoot range contain any artificial flavours or colours.
Mums opinions are really important to us and we are always listening to mums to make sure we are meeting their needs – that’s why we launched the new Robinsons Be Natural range earlier this year. Be Natural is made from only naturally sourced ingredients and contains no artificial preservatives or sweeteners. As both Robinsons Be Natural and Fruit Shoot 100% do not contain any preservatives they must be stored in the refrigerator after opening and consumed within three weeks.
I’m more than happy to answer any questions you might have so don’t hesitate to drop me an email at julie@juliedean.com and I’ll do my best to answer your queries.
Julie
The school holidays are upon us and I’m sure I’m not alone in wanting to see children up and about having fun together rather than sitting in isolation with their computers and play stations. It is worrying then that a recent study revealed that many children actually don’t know how to play without the use of some electrical gadget. The report[1] entitled ‘Big Mothered Britain’ which surveyed over 4,000 parents, found that today’s generation of children are missing out on the wide variety of traditional childhood games that we grew up on.
I don’t think I can remember any of my childhood girlfriends not having a skipping rope but this report revealed only 24% of girls today skip often. Other childhood activities that are disappearing include hopscotch for girls and tree climbing among boys.
Of course we did not have access to the ‘readymade’ entertainment, such as play stations, Wiis and Nintendo consoles, which our children are surrounded by so we had to rely on using our imagination and physical skills to create our world of fun.
Whilst there is a lot to be said for children growing up to be computer savvy it cannot be good if they are so committed to their hand held games that they don’t get enough exercise, and they will surely miss out on learning to play as part of a team.
I have to confess though that in this busy world of fast cars I have not given my children the same freedom, to cycle or play wherever they want, as my parents allowed for me. There has to be a balance which is why it’s great that the Fruit Shoot team have updated their web site with easy to follow instructions to enable children to learn all sorts of new and different skills – from skipping, football keepy-uppy’s, beatboxing and ping-cup visit www.fruitshoot.com.
In today’s Daily Express, the well known nutritionist Anita Bean (she has written some great books on nutrition and sports for children!) Click here for Anitas web stie. reported on a recent survey that children are not drinking enough during this hot weather.
Im not surprised by the findings - children do tend to be more at risk than adults of becoming dehydrated as they’re generally more active and may have difficulty recognising when they’re thirsty. Having a variety of drinks including water, juices and squash readily available is the best way to keep children hydrated this summer.
Did you know….?
When the suns out – its great to encourage as much out door play as possible and with both Wimbledon and cricket on the TV children can become really inspired! The only watch out is to make sure they drink enough – they can find it quite a chore to keep topped up! But persevere because keeping hydrated really does have benefits, not only for their sporting performance but for concentration, alertness and also their general mood. When the temperature rises so does our need for fluid but combine this with more activity and you really do have to plan ahead.
To help keep young ones hydrated:
Strawberries Thank goodness for Wimbledon – I may not be a die hard tennis fan (I never really got over Bjorn Borg’s retirement ..!) but I love the tradition and excitement which builds up around the event and of course bring on the strawberries. A luxury we really can feel good about indulging in – a small bowl (150g) only contains about 45 Kcals and they are an excellent source of Vitamin C – a massive 82 mg – more than your total daily requirement! Technically strawberries are not actually a fruit but are classified as a “false fruit” but a portion does count as one of your five portions fruit and vegetable per day – so enjoy! I love them on their own or mixed with other summer berries but if you have to have them the traditional way with cream – you may need to think about those extra calories..!. A tablespoon double cream – 112 Kcals 1 table spoon clotted cream – 146 Kcals A tablespoon of single cream – 50 Kcals One scoop (60g) of vanilla ice cream – 116 Kcals 125g natural yoghurt – 75 Kcals
I’m sure many follow the extremely engaging Dulwich Mum blog and I couldn’t help but laugh at her recent post on Fruit Shoot – yet another classic post from the Lady of Dulwich. She need not worry thought Freya is quite correct – there are no artificial colours, flavours or added sugar in Low Sugar Fruit Shoot……!!
Recently the Fruit Shoot team sent out some of the new
range for various mums to try so thought I’d give you all a brief update.
We’ve had some great feedback from
dulwichmum, and littlemummy whose daughter Erin was particularly keen on
the rucksack the drinks came in. The Fruit Shoot team back at Britvic HQ
are poring over the feedback so they can continually improve the drinks.
As always if you have any questions on Fruit Shoot or anything on nutrition
then please don’t hesitate to leave a comment and I’ll do my best to answer
them.
I’ve noticed there has been some chat on Netmums around drinks for young children and in particular the
value of Fruit Shoot. My heart goes out to mums over all the anguish around
what to give young children to drink – we mums are meant to understand so much!
I wish this communication was
around when my girls were young – they are teenagers now so I should probably
find a site to help me!
Being a qualified nutritionist helps me in one area at least when it
comes to being a mum! My advice is that pre school children need to be encouraged
to drink a little and often – the best choices would be milk, diluted fruit
juice andwater but well diluted squashes are fine for this very young group too.
All Robinsons drinks are free from artificial flavours and colours.
The issues are different once they start school, mainly because they often
then do not drink enough – they are simply too busy with all their activities,
can’t be bothered or don't like what’s on offer. This is where drinks like Fruit Shoot, designed
for on-the-go, can play a valuable role.
When it comes to ingredients and making choices – you do need to
consider the needs of your child at that particular time and in the context of
what they are doing that day. To me it’s all about variety – we tend to go for
the 100% juice at breakfast or lunch - because it’s a convenient way of having one of your five a day. If I want my girls to
have some energy as well as good hydration – such as when they come out of
school and go straight to a sports activity I'm happy for them to have drinks
with some sugar such as a regular
Robinsons squash or a Fruit Shoot.
When it’s purely hydration they need (sometimes this can be mistaken
for hunger!) then they might go for an artificial sweetened drink. I think artificial
sweeteners are overly criticised and misunderstood. They can actually have a
very valuable role in making great tasting products which are virtually calorie
free. The sweetener aspartame is one of the most thoroughly tested ingredients
of all time (just last month another report from the European Food Safety Association,
has once again given it the all clear). In reality aspartame brings nothing new to the
diet. It is made up of two amino acids –which are the building blocks of
protein – and you will find these amino acids naturally occurring in many
foods. The amino acids are incredibly sweet – in fact these same amino acids
are found in breast milk and they contribute to its sweetness - so only a very small amount is needed to be
added to drinks to get some sweetness.
As with all things its balance and moderation and helping your
children to make good choices – simply banning a food can often make it even
more desirable.
One final point I wanted to touch on that was raised in the Netmums
forum was the ingredients in Fruit Shoot.
A list of the ingredients was posted in the forum; however this was
actually an outdated list as none of the Fruit Shoot products contain sodium
benzoate.
If you’d like to have more information on the Robinsons range, or
ingredients, click here and do
please get in touch if you want more advice.
Most of us enjoying keeping hydrated by
choosing a variety of drinks through the day ranging from water to pepsi. I tend
to balance those which contain sugar and/or fruit juice to give me some energy
as well as hydration with those which
are sugar free but which contain artificial sweeteners. The option to choose
drinks with artificial sweeteners is very helpful when you want hydration but
not the calories. However some people are concerned about the safety of artificial
sweeteners such as aspartame - in spite of it being one of the most thorough
researched food ingredients of all time. We can be further reassured by a recent report (a report that received no
media coverage, probably because it was too positive!) was that the European
Food Standard Agency (EFSA) published the results of an extensive review of the
research looking into the use aspartame. The EFSA Panel concluded:
"...
on the basis of all the evidence currently available including the last
published ERF study that there is no indication of any genotoxic or
carcinogenic potential of aspartame and that there is no reason to revise the
previously established ADI for aspartame of 40 mg/kg bw/day."
Recent Comments