Sugar Shocker

You take a gulp of your favorite fruit drink. Mmm. It’s refreshing and sweet. By the looks of the package, it’s also good for you. After all, there’s a picture of a bunch of berries on it. But your drink is hiding something. It’s actually loaded with sugar and has little nutritional value.

“You can’t tell what’s inside the drink by looking at the front of the package,” says Jennifer Harris. She’s a researcher who led a study of 67 kids’ drinks.

The study found that many drink packages are misleading. For example, more than a dozen that show fruit on the package don’t contain any fruit!

How can you tell which ones to drink and which to avoid?

One of the main categories of kids’ drinks is fruit juices. When you see “100% juice” on a container, that means it’s made from nothing but water and fruit juice. All its sweetness comes from the natural sugar that’s in the fruit. Like whole fruit, many 100 percent fruit juices are good sources of some vitamins and nutrients.

Still, experts suggest that you drink fruit juice in moderation. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that kids drink no more than 8 ounces of 100 percent fruit juice per day. That’s one small glass.

Why? For starters, fruit juices are missing some key nutrients that make whole fruit healthy. A big one is fiber, which helps with digestion and helps you feel full.

Plus, too much sugar can be bad for you—and most juices are packed with it. A tall glass of 100 percent apple juice, for example, can have as much sugar as the same glass filled with soda!

The study also looked at kids’ drinks with added sweeteners. Fruit drinks that aren’t 100 percent juice are sweetened with something else. In many cases, it’s added sugar, which is put into drinks as they are processed. Drinks with added sugars don’t offer the same health benefits as 100 percent fruit juices.

“Most of these products are just supersweet water with no nutrition at all,” says Harris.

Consuming too much added sugar can cause health problems like tooth decay, obesity, and heart disease.

What about drinks labeled “less sugar” or “low sugar”? Are they better for you? Not exactly. The drinks often have artificial sweeteners. These chemicals are much sweeter substitutes for sugar. Experts say kids under the age of 14 shouldn’t have artificial sweeteners at all.

So what’s the best way to know what’s in your fruit drink? Read the nutrition label and ingredients list (see slideshow, above). And experts suggest trying healthier options. Instead of drinking apple juice, eat an apple. Harris says you should think of fruit drinks the same way you’d think about a candy bar.

“Water and plain milk are the only drinks you need every day,” she says. “Anything else should be considered a special treat.”