Choosing healthy beverages for children and adolescents is just as important as choosing healthy foods, as it impacts everything from oral health to chronic disease risk. That’s why leading health and nutrition organizations developed new healthy beverage recommendations for families with children ages 5-18.
These evidence-based recommendations were created as part of a collaboration by experts at the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Heart Association, who were brought together by Healthy Eating Research (HER) with funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
To make choosing healthy beverages easier for families, the organizations created these three categories:
Beverages to Drink
• Plain drinking water is still the best option to keep kids healthy and hydrated.
• Plain, pasteurized milk is another healthy option because it provides important nutrients that growing kids and teens need.
Beverages to Limit
• 100% fruit and vegetable juice can be part of a healthy diet, but daily consumption should be limited.
• Plant-based milk alternatives like oat milk and almond milk should be limited because they are not nutritionally equivalent to cow’s milk. Many also contain added sugars and non-sugar sweeteners. If your child is allergic to dairy milk or has a dietary restriction, talk to your doctor or registered dietitian.
• Flavored milks, like chocolate milk and strawberry milk, should be limited because they contain high amounts of added sugars and non-sugar sweeteners.
Beverages to Avoid
• Sugar-sweetened beverages, such as sports drinks, sodas, fruit drinks, fruitades, aguas frescas, and sweetened waters are high in added sugars.
• Drinks with non-sugar sweeteners, such as aspartame, stevia, and monk fruit, should also be avoided. Just because a drink is advertised as sugar-free doesn’t mean it’s healthier. In fact, new research shows non-sugar sweeteners may not help control body weight and may increase the risk of diet-related chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
• Drinks with caffeine or other stimulants like taurine should be avoided. These include energy drinks, energy shots, coffee, and tea. Evidence suggests that there is no safe amount of caffeine consumption for children under 18 and that even small amounts can lead to poor sleep quality, increased blood pressure, depressive moods, and anxiety.
Source: StatePoint (Edited by d-mars.com)
