Are ‘Health Drinks’ Really ‘Healthy’? Or Is It Just Sugar You Are Giving To Your Child

Gone are the days when mothers used to prepare the best possible nutritious foods for their children. I remember in my case my mother used to mix biscuit or semolina in cow milk, yes 90’s kids had their mothers as their nutritionist. Not that I didn’t have Complan or Horlicks, but that’s definitely a result of how well these health drinks marketed themselves at times.

Well, no matter whether you are preparing or buying health drinks, the search for the best health drinks has always been there. And now the biggest question is whether Complan, Horlicks or Bournvita or the others, which one is best for your child. While some claim as good for Your Child’s growth, then the other makes them taller, sharper and a lot more.

Here let me clear you that before thinking of which one is the best, rather healthiest for your kid, do consider that whether these health drinks are actually healthy for your children? You might be wondering where is this question coming from, isn’t it? Okay, that’s what this article is all about.

First of all, when a health drink is claiming that they have got the highest protein or the recommended amount of other micro nutrients, you definitely consider it as healthy. Since, it’s difficult to find all the micro nutrients like calcium, magnesium, iron etc or the other vitamins in one glass. But it’s just what they are claiming or assuring. Remember you can never be fully assured about the nutrients that a glass of your health drink contains.

Now the major issue is the sugar part. Undoubtedly health drinks can provide enough of energy. But the considering factor is the source of energy. And this is unbelievable that most of this energy comes from sugar. You can find that amount of sugar even on the label of that health drink. To make it more clear lets have a look on their sugar content.

– Complan contains 62g of carbohydrates, among which 24g is sugar.

– Bournvita contains 85.2g carbohydrates, of which 32g is sugar.

– Horlicks contains 79g of carbohydrates which consists of 13.5g of sugar.

Isn’t it worst that you are actually fortifying the milk with sugar, yes a large proportion of sugar. Another thing to consider is when you are feeding chocolate flavoured health drink to your children. Combination of Sugar and Chocolate can end up affecting your child’s health.

You might be thinking that having this much of sugar how these health drinks are still on high demand. Well, the deal is the amount of sugar that you get from one glass of health drink might be okay, considering the other nutrients. But you can’t limit the sugar consumption in a glass only. There are several other sugary foods that your child may eat, and that’s where it becomes worst.

Also there is a high risk of oral problems. You may not allow your children to have candy but the sugar in the health drink may also cause oral bacterial growth.

Not to forget that the way sugar can boost the energy level immediately, it can make your child fatigue later. Also the health drink may have preservatives which can be bad for health.

So, basically there is no substitute of milk. Undoubtedly, the health drink that prefer may provide lot of essential nutrients but that high amount of sugar is actually unnecessary and the biggest fact is SUGAR IS NOTHING BUT EMPTY CALORIES.