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News Industry Tips to Help Kids Make Healthier Drink Choices


Industry

11th November 2021

Tips to Help Kids Make Healthier Drink Choices

Overconsuming sugary drinks can cause undetectable damage to kids’ health. Aside from sugar building up in their bloodstream, excessive sugar can affect their cognitive functions. This includes their ability to learn, think, reason, remember, problem-solve and make decisions. Overconsuming sugar can also increase the risk of weight gain and tooth decay. To eliminate these risks that excessive sugar poses, we need to encourage kids to start making healthier choices - starting with what they drink.

As dramatic as it sounds, sugar is like a drug. One study pushed the drug-sugar analogy to the limit, discovering that sugar is just as addictive as an opioid drug such as cocaine (source: British Journal of Sports Medicine). Because a sugar detox can be just as damaging as excessive sugar consumption - we need to understand the boundary between healthy and harmful. The first step to helping kids make healthier choices is looking for healthier alternatives to existing sugary drinks.

Here are 5 ways to improve their drinking habits

1. Start with what you put in their lunchbox. When you’re shopping for groceries, encourage them to get involved by picking out healthier options. Sending your child to school with a healthy packed lunch every day will provide them with the nutrients and energy they need to grow, learn and develop.

2. Educate them on making healthier choices by openly discussing the adverse effects of sugar overconsumption. Children are more receptive to learning through experimentation and a little fun, so try implementing a few educational activities to keep them engaged.

3. Older children and teenagers between 7 and 18 should only drink one sugary cup a day - which shouldn’t be before bedtime. Encourage them to choose water as their bedside drink instead. Apart from tap water being the most economical option, it keeps their bones and teeth healthy, supports blood circulation, and improves mood and memory. Play around with how you serve water if your child doesn’t like drinking it. Drop some fruit slices like strawberries into the glass or give them a low-sugar flavoured spring water drink.

4. Skipping the regular soda drink ladened with sugar and picking up a sugar-free version might sound like a healthier choice for your child, but it’s not. Aspartame is a fake sweetener commonly found in diet sodas that tricks the body into expecting more sugar. This changes the way the body metabolizes other calories, meaning the body will store more calories as fat and use fewer calories for energy. In the long-term, this can be lead to teenage obesity.

5. Favoured by older students, energy drinks contain high unregulated amounts of caffeine, with some the equivalent of two espressos and up to 17 spoons of sugar per can. When you ask your teen to curb energy drinks, give them the opportunity to choose a healthier alternative instead. Teens often rebel against an outright ban, so make a good case for why they must cut back by explaining their health risks.

Enjoyed by kids across the nation, iPRO Student Edition is a school-compliant range of flavoured drinks formulated in line with Public Health England guidelines to help keep their sugar and calorie intake at a healthy level. iPRO Student Edition comes in three thirst-quenching flavours: Berry Mix, Mango, and Sour Cherry. These great-tasting vegan-friendly drinks are free from caffeine, added sugar, artificial colours, and artificial flavourings.