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Juice boxes are easy to throw into a lunch bag, and it’s hard to find a birthday party that doesn’t serve them. Parents often offer kids sippy cups of fruit juice with a snack or use them to hold kids over till dinner. Most have heard that juice isn’t the best for kids, but at least it’s better than pop, right"
Unfortunately it?s really not, say the experts. ?It?s essentially sugar water?sometimes with vitamins in it,? says Rachel Freeman, a registered dietitian who works in paediatrics in a private practice in Burlington, Ont., and at McMaster Children?s Hospital in Hamilton. She tells parents that giving kids juice is almost the same as giving them pop in terms of the sugar content and cavity-causing effects. For years, dietitians have been telling parents that juice isn?t good for kids, and now the formal guidelines are beginning to catch up. Today, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) announced it?s changing its guidelines on juice, recommending that no child under one year old drink juice at all and limiting older kids? consumption to very small quantities. The message is clear: Juice is not healthy.
Freeman isn?t surprised. She says dietitians have been looking to Health Canada for years to change its policy on juice. She expects Canada?s Food Guide will disqualify juice from its current classification as a fruit or vegetable serving very soon.
In the US, the new recommendations are that toddlers ages one to three...