Monday 21 October 2013

Don't Shoot The Fruit

This is a holding page and image for a blog piece I am going to write today:

Fruit Shoot

So I have always avoided Fruit Shoot like the plague even pre-motherhood.

Even when Aaron was too young to drink it, I wrote about it.  It's one of the posts I am most proud of but sadly not one of the most read (it has had 629 page views though).  When I published it, I thought if one person stops drinking it thanks to me, I will be made up, and they did. It was Inside the Wendy House.

Anyway fast forward, and Aaron and I were at soft play on Friday. We go to these places in various guises really really often, and I have never had the great Fruit Shoot debate with Aaron as it's just not cropped up.  BUT a year ago my Sister-in-Law bought him one and it was snatched out of his hand - by me - and replaced with something else before he knew what was going on.  Anyway the less said about that the better, as it turned out to be their healthier *coughs* My-5 (real juice with a splash of water) range and did not have aspartame in it (in fact it doesn't seem to have any dodginess in it), so I had something that look's white on the outside and yellow in the middle on my face.  THAT soft play area is frequented by the sort of parents who demand better.

But sadly not so with my more local one:

Well, moving swiftly on, this Friday at soft play Aaron's friend had one of the Orange Low Sugar Fruit Shoots you see photographed above - photos on this blog tend to be my own.

Aaron insisted on having one, and I gave in, but I was fuming.  My friend didn't understand and said "well it's only the once".  I read the ingredients and imagine my confusion when the monster word ASPARTAME was NOT there.  I knew it wasn't a My-5, I was wise to that, as I explain above.  What's this? A trick by Robinsons to remove the word they know causes offence? So that parents who know A BIT will see the absence of THAT word and buy it?

Instead the ingredients read as follows:
Ingredients: Water, Orange Juice from Concentrate (8%), Citric Acid, Acidity Regulator (Sodium Citrate), Natural Flavouring, Preservatives (Potassium Sorbate, Dimethyl Dicarbonate), Antioxidant (Ascorbic Acid), Sweeteners (Acesulfame K, Sucralose), Stabiliser (Xanthan Gum), Natural Colour (Carotenes).
OH AND....... Aaron was NOT at all himself after drinking it Friday.  On the way home from soft play he had a headache (imagine at 3 years old) and threw THE worst tantrum he has ever thrown.  So bad that as we cut across a park, I sat his bum on the grass and walked off.  I only did so as my best mate was with me and I knew she'd pick up the pieces but suffice to say he will NOT be drinking it again!

I will now be investigating: Acesulfame.....

And will update this post some more once I have done so 

So the first port of call as usual is Wikipedia.

Reading this: Fruit Shoot recovers market share, makes me want to know WHY they had a recall..... more digging around ensues 

this post is TBC (to be completed)

The Mad House of Cats and Babies has already blogged about Fruit Shoots 

Faded Seaside Mama has written a great post called Sweet Like Sugar and I agree with her that sweeteners are way more harmful than sugar itself, hence me writing this post.

13 comments:

  1. I look forward to your research. we tend to only bring our filled at home water bottles with us or pure juice. however i gave in one hot, thirsty day and bought all my kids a fruit shoot. it made the younger two cough lots but they wouldnt stop drinking it. they moaned when they were finished and wanted another. now when ever my youngest sees them she puts her hand out and looks crazy for one. she doesnt get one but how scary that after one taste she seems addicted! why market such unhealthy drinks for children? x

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    1. Addiction is what so much of what is on the shelves promotes. When I used to go to yoga festivals every year for 8 days I would only eat healthily and all my snacking and sugar cravings would disappear. Resuming a NORMAL diet on return would always give me this feeling like my head would fall off. We've become too accustomed to food that is LADEN with chemicals. We're raising a generation now who probably don't know what food SHOULD taste like :-( x

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  2. Acesulfame is just another name for aspartame. And sucralose is yet another artificial sweetener or chemical sugar. So both BAD!!
    I too hate the comment about it just being the once - because it's not - once kids try something and like it, they're going to keep wanting it. The worst thing for us is that the lady that runs our favourite softplay frequently shares links to the dangers of aspartame, but will then offer my two year old cheap squash when we go there. Maybe she secretly hates me!!! LOL
    Anyway, it's funny you wrote this as I was just in the middle of writing a post on the proliferation of sugar in children's diets and this was a subject I was going to touch upon. Thanks for making me feel like I'm not the only crazy mum out there that doesn't want to poison my children with this rubbish! Would you mind if I linked to this post in mine?

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    1. I would love you to and will also link to you xx

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  3. Interesting post Liska. My sons who are 5.5 and 2.5 are not allowed to drink it for the same reasons. My husband is VERY hot on not giving them anything with aspartame in it.....especially the fruit shoots! It is extremely hard to steer them away from them though at such places or when their friends are having them but we have so far succeeded thankfully. Good luck with your research.

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    1. Thank you. I know what you mean about the steering away, as I had previously managed it. Aaron's really alert yet never taken any heed of them till Friday. I am glad the posher soft play had My-5 but stupid me, snatched that away. Then this Friday he had that one with horrid results. I don't know this new ingredient but it seems as bad as aspartame from the little online research I have done and you know what, I always go by experience anyway and his reaction to it was NOT good xx

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  4. I've always hated the idea of these drinks & refuse to let my girls drink them. However, husband & his family have given Poppy them x2 with horrible results. My little angel turned into a monster. Now everyone knows my children are never to drink them as they send them loopy! Anyway have you tasted them? Foul things! X

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    1. Oh my you took the words out of my mouth. When I finish this post I was going to say "don't feed your kids anything you haven't tasted" and I was going to say that purely because they taste NASTY!!!!!
      The tantrum Aaron had crossing the park on the way back from soft play was NUTS - thank God my BFF was with me.
      xxxx

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  5. All my friends read my blog post on Fruit shoots and now make a huge point of not serving them, at parties or tea dates! :) I loathe them, they are such an unhealthy thing to promote as part of a "healthy" diet for kids and Robinsons should be ashamed! Thanks for linking my blog post! :)

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