[ChefTalk.com]

The other day I went to buy some of the individual bags of flavored waters for my kids. I was thinking that they would be preferable to the no?sugar?added juice boxes I normally offer to hydrate them in the car. Water, I reasoned, is always a healthier choice than juice.What a surprise, then, to see that one of the most popular brands of these water bags listed high fructose corn syrup as the second ingredient and sucralose as the fourth!


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[siduri]

Well, i presume water was the main ingredient? You never know with these products! My question with these flavored waters is that they have some flavoring in them, and is that actally made from fruit? Is it a chemical flavoring? Apart from teh health risks of artificial flavors, which may be there, who knows, there is also the risk of deceiving growing taste buds, so that they get used to artificial tastes, and are prey to all the otehr crap that is marketed and will be marketed all their lives. They also get used to water having a "flavor" when water is water and can be the most thirst-quenching thing there is. (And also, why "hydrate", rather than "quench thirst"? it makes everything sound so medicinal!)
I like things simpler: water is water, juice is juice, both are good and healthy (why is water healthier than juice? kids need lots of calories and the vitamins in juice are not bad for them).
The more industrial activity involved in making something, the less it's likely to be good for you. Just my opinion.

[Free Rider]

Originally Posted by siduri

.................. (And also, why "hydrate", rather than "quench thirst"? it makes everything sound so medicinal!)
......................
The more industrial activity involved in making something, the less it's likely to be good for you. Just my opinion.

I agree completely.

Why hydrate? The US has lost touch with what food really is. Powerbars to Gatorade. Food is simply a chemical compound you put into your body, usually one that has been heavily advertised as being healthy.

[Marzoli]

Originally Posted by siduri

the risk of deceiving growing taste buds, so that they get used to artificial tastes, and are prey to all the otehr crap that is marketed and will be marketed all their lives.

I really LIKE your opinion! I believe that the deceiving of growing taste buds is how we all got "addicted" to refined sugar, refined white flour, polished rice, and a host of other wonders of modern times, if I remember my Sugar Blues correctly. That book was an eye opener for me back in the day!
I, for one, will stick with plain old water--just not the water that comes from the fountains in my school--well water that gives me a sore throat! I bring my water from home. The kids love the flavored water and buy it by the crates. They're not my kids. They also do not drink milk, eat vegetables, and I could rant for days.
Anyway, I like your opinion!

[siduri]

all true, though when my daughter was small they were saying babies don;t need salt added to their food. So i tried to introduce vegetables, and she would never eat them, cooked all kinds of things, pressed through a strainer and she would spit them out. Evenm whe she was into finger foods, she wouldn;t eat vegetables. One day i said, the heck with this, and dipped the tip of a string bean in salt, she ate it up like it was candy! From then on i salted all her food. She takes after me, we are salt eaters.
Interestingly enough, she became a vegetarian!

I think the taste for sweets is inborn - monkeys too like sweets, and if you ever tasted breast milk (i tried my own out of curiosity) you'd see it's extremely sweet and watery. Don't forget that once, not long ago, people mainly were concerned to eat enough calories. But of course, if kids get used to sugared snacks instead of sweet fruit, they will get more of a taste for it. Interestingly enough, here in italy, kids used to get salty things for an after school snack - a piece of white pizza, a piece of bread and salame, bread rubbed with a tomato and oil and salt, or simply bread and oil with salt. I would make cakes and cookies and stuff at birthday parties, along with sandwiches, and the kids would hardly touch the sweets.
Now with commercial snacks taking over, things are different.

[Smylietron]

Originally Posted by siduri

Now with commercial snacks taking over, things are different.

It's a sorry state of affairs when a kid would rather eat grape-flavored fruit snacks than actual, honest-to-god grapes. Especially when real grapes taste better anyway (chewonthatblog.com/?p=295)!

[OahuAmateurChef]

...flavored waters for my kids. I was thinking that they would be preferable to the no-sugar-added...

She had it correct, up until the "flavored" part. Why not just bring them water and a piece of fruit? If that is not nurturing enough, she could slice the fruit up beforehand.


We are trying to provide 91 nutrients while avoiding thousands of toxins.

[Rene]

Don't trust any of it.........

If you were to just pour a glass of water at home pour spoonfuls of sugar in each glass add your own chemical flavorings ......it would still be less then what theses huge companies put in their bottled fruit flavored waters........

[Indigo_Swale]

For relatively healthful "flavored water" type beverages, I'm partial to Glaceau's VitaminWater and SmartWater.

They use "crystalline fructose" as the sweetener--no high-fructose corn syrup and no artificial sweeteners. I'm pretty sure the crystalline fructose is much better for you than the others.

These drinks aren't overwhelmingly sweet. Each 20 oz. bottle of Vitamin Water contains about 150 calories, according to the label. I admit I'm hopelessly addicted to the stuff. I'm not sure the Smart Water contains any added sweetener at all; I think it may just contain flavoring alone.

Of course, Coca-Cola just bought out Glaceau, so I wouldn't bet on the product remaining quite as healthful in the future...