Birthdays, school parties, family celebrations and the table is filled with the sparkling and inviting colors of sugary drinks. It is junk food, that is products lacking in nutritional values and rich in added sugars, dyes, preservatives and chemicals. Junk food just like snacks, fries, candy and lots of snacks.
Sweetened drinks are junk food
So-called junk food should not even occasionally enter children's food. Of course, it may be objected: what harm can a glass of a sweetened drink do once in a while? This is not the point, though. The point is to educate children to eat healthy, because it is only through training that results can be achieved. It is only through the information that the youngest can learn to feed themselves respecting their health.
Fruit juices and sugary drinks
Even fruit juices can contain added sugars and fall into the category of sugary drinks. However, there are good quality products, as long as you choose well and do not exceed consumption. Here's how to choose a good fruit juice. First of all, a distinction should be made between fruit-flavored drinks, nectars and fruit juices.
Fruit-flavored drinks, as the name suggests, have only the taste of fruit, by law 12% is enough, the rest is composed of water, sugars and various additives.
The nectars contain a percentage of fruit that can vary from 25 to 70% and it is therefore important to read the label well. And then there are the real fruit juices, those without added sugar, which would be better to choose from organic farming; they are quality products, but they should not be considered fresh fruit substitutes, as the industrial processes of filtering and preserving reduce the nutritional characteristics of the fruit of origin.
Sugary drinks: do you need to forbid them?
Recently, the regional council of Sicily has banned sugary drinks from schools, in favor of fresh fruit and citrus juices. The provision has two objectives: to promote a healthy eating style and to support the consumption of local products; two important and beautiful but very ambitious goals. Prohibit really serves? Is it enough to reduce junk food consumption among children and adolescents?
The answer to this question seems to come from the United States, where provisions similar to those taken by the Sicily Region are in force in various states. In November 2011, a study entitled Banning All Sugar-Sweetened Beverages in Middle Schools was published on the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine and the results were not encouraging. The objective of the study, which involved public schools in 40 states, was to determine whether state policies that prohibit the sale of sugary drinks within the school are associated with an effective reduction in the consumption of these products, inside and outside the school context. The study concluded that prohibiting the sale of these products in schools reduces their consumption within the school itself but does not affect much the general consumption.
It therefore appears that by prohibiting large results are not obtained.
More than prohibit, therefore, we should educate. The feeling is that, in terms of healthy eating, there is a lot of misinformation, although we talk about it and write more and more about it. Perhaps it might be useful to promote awareness-raising campaigns to explain to children, but also to their parents, the basis and motivation of healthy eating. Obviously, the problem does not only involve sugary drinks per se, but the whole world of junk food, too often within the reach of children, in schools, as in homes.
