Additives in juice drinks

Many children start to drink fruit juices and juice-type drinks when they are still young. But are these drinks really what they seem?

Fortunately the main fruit juice brands seem to have reduced their dependence on food additives in recent years and have cleaned up their ingredients rather well. Brands like Berri, Just Juice and Golden Circle are all free of artificial colours and E211 preservative.

However other popular brands like the Schweppes Pop Tops range contain both artificial colours and E211, a shocking combination that can lead to significant hyperactivity in some children. The Pop Tops are popular because of their handy size and easy-to-open pop-up lids. They are ideal for children to use without spilling.

Similarly a number of juice drinks in takeaway outlets are also popular - you know the ones with pictures of Spiderman, Dora or Thomas on the front and the ones our children always nag us to have because the pictures look so good. Sadly, however, these also contain artificial colours in them and they can quickly send some children into a hyperactive frenzy.

I remember my own son having some of these drinks during shopping trips in the past. One minute he was fine and then, soon after consuming one of these drinks, he became so hyper, unruly and badly behaved I simply had to abandon my shopping plans and just go home.

The worst thing is that the branding and marketing of these products is so good that parents and children alike are regularly conned into buying them. It is not until we work out the ingredients inside them (apart from all the sugar, of course) that we toughen up and say 'no'.

I would also have hoped that a company like Schweppes would be more responsible with their ingredients. But sadly not.

Cordial drinks also need a cautionary approach.

Most of the Cottees range of cordials (except Pine Lime) are free from artificial colours and E211.

The Golden Circle range (except lime cordial) can also boast on most of its labels that drinks have 'no artificial colours' included in them. However looking at the small print on the back of the bottles reveal they still contains E211 in their ingredients - so they are really not as safe as they try to claim.

Another difficulty is that the ingredient labels on many of these products are so small that you often need a magnifying glass to find them and read them.

But clearly it is vital that we all make the effort to check out the ingredients before giving these drinks to our kids.  Then, if we stop buying those brands with unnecessary additives, we might gradually start seeing companies adjusting to consumer demands.

We can only hope .....!

Cool drinks and ice blocks

Well, its been hot in Australia recently, really hot. And many of us are reaching for the ice-blocks and cold drinks in a bid to cool down on the inside as well as the outside.

But if you have a negative reaction to artificial food colourings or 211 preservative then this takes a little more thought than just reaching into the fridge or freezer for the first cold item that comes to hand.

You know those bottles of mineral water with flavours in them - the ones produced by manufacturers such as Deep Spring. They make a good range of lightly flavoured drinks with 'orange and passionfruit' and other interesting tastes. They are certainly nice and refreshing in hot weather. The bottles even say they have 'natural colours and flavours'.

Well, that may be so, but they also contain preservative 211, and therein lies the problem.

My son used to drink these a few summers ago because we thought that a 'lightly sparkling mineral water' with 'natural colours' would be just fine for him. Not like those other heavily coloured fizzy drinks you can buy in the supermarket chains and vending machines which just scream at you "danger - keep out!"

But then, after an ongoing period of drinking this so-called 'mineral water' my son became extremely hyper with a total lack of concentration, silly behaviour and generally dysfunction.

We later worked out that the culprit was preservative 211 inside the mineral water. The bottle might have seemed friendly enough but clearly it was far from it.

Similarly with ice blocks - unless we buy the SPC brand (currently with Toy Story images on them) or Icy-Pole blocks we are really heading for a nightmare time. Most of the standard ice-blocks on sale are jam-packed with all sorts of artificial colours and are absolutely terrible for many children susceptible to behavioural impacts. Been there, done that - never again, thank you very much.

So if you are trying to cool down this summer, try something a little safer. The new LOL brands are safe and tasty (amazing but true). Otherwise stick to good old fashioned water or double check all the ingredients on the back of every item before you buy it.