Ribena - Four times more vitamin C than fresh blackcurrants?
Several months ago, a couple of lassies from Perth in Western
Australia tackled the food, drug and beverage giant GlaxoSmithKline
on the content of the popular drink Ribena, and guess what?
They won the case with Ribena’s manufacturers admitting
they misled consumers by implying the blackcurrant juice drink
contains four times as much vitamin C as comparable orange
juice drinks.
In fact earlier this year, Choice magazine named Ribena as
one of ten foods that would make children fatter, faster.
GlaxoSmithKline Australia (GSK) has admitted it may have misled
consumers about Ribena’s vitamin C content, and have
reported the discrepancies of their claims to the Australian
Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).
GSK told the ACCC that advertising and packaging which implied
Ribena fruit drinks contained four times the vitamin C of
comparable orange juice products were incorrect. It also said
the nutritional information panel of Ribena ready-to-drink
fruit drinks represented that the products contained a significantly
greater amount of vitamin C than they actually contained.
This is a huge victory for the average Mum or Dad that battles
through the supermarket shelves with hardly enough time to
do the shopping let alone read the label on everything that
goes into the trolley.
Fruit Juice: Making Kids Fat?
But what about other fruit drinks? Results of recent studies
are surprising, showing that parents who give their children
fruit juice as a healthy option could actually be making them
fat. And research from Australia has concluded that children
who drank more than 500ml of fruit juice a day were more likely
to be overweight or obese than those who had none. And those
who drank three or more glasses of soft drink or four glasses
of fruit juice on a given day were more than twice as likely
to be overweight or obese compared with children who did not
regularly consume sweetened drinks. This is a tough wake-up
call for many parents. While carefully avoiding soft drinks,
and give juice instead. Most commercially available juices
are simply reconstituted juice and are basically just another
form of sugar (fructose). So what do we as parents do?
· Shop more slowly and read the labels carefully!
· Another tip is to dilute juices (my kids love my
“apple fizz” - glass apple juice, glass soda water,
glass water. Lots of ice and crushed mint leaves)
· If your children do want a sweet drink, boxed juice
is still preferable to soft drinks
· Make fresh juice at home! (but be aware that a glass
of orange juice with 4 oranges contains the same amount of
calories as 4 whole fruit)
· The main drink that your child should be drinking
is WATER, WATER, WATER (that’s what lions drink!)
· Younger children also need milk (full fat, non flavored,
non sweetened)
Happy shopping!
“Kim Patra is a qualified Registered Nurse and Midwife
that has been living and working in Bali for almost twenty
years. She now runs her own private practice and medical referral
service from her Kuta office. Kim is happy to discuss any
health concerns with you and she may be contacted via e-mail
at info@chcbali.com or Hp. 081 2366 0000”.
