In the nutrition class I teach to parents, we talk about healthful drinks. So many of them (and their kids) drink soda,fruit drinks such as Sunny Delight, etc. They're cheap, but not in the long run! So we discuss alternatives, such as 100% juice cut with water, low fat milk, and then the drinks from their culture such as horchata, tamarindo, etc.

Here's a recipe for horchata, the real thing, and granted it's a lot of work:
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Horchata

From Jeff Smedstad of Los Sombreros Mexican Café

10 cups water
2 sticks canela (Mexican cinnamon)
1 tablespoon toasted sliced almonds
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup long grain rice

Combine water, canela sticks, almonds and sugar in a large pot. Bring to a boil. Add rice and reduce temperature to keep water at a low simmer; cook for 15 minutes. Turn off heat and allow mixture to cool.

Remove canela sticks. Pour cooled mixture into blender and puree. Pour through a fine mesh strainer into pitcher. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

To serve, pour in glasses over ice. Makes 10 servings.
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For our snack, one of the moms brought in a commercially made horchata, brand name Cacique. Get a load of the ingredients:

Water, high fructose corn syrup, nondairy creamer (partially hydrogenated soybean oil, corn syrup, sodium caseinate), mono and diglyceriedes, dipotassium phosphate, sodium silico aluminate, soy lecithin, natural flavor, guar gum, potassium sorbate, ground cinnamon, rice flour.

Can you imagine the teeny-tiny amount of rice here, listed as the last ingredient after all the preservatives? The definition of horchata is that it's a rice drink!! And it says so on the label. Not to mention the 27 grams of sugar per cup!! I think I'm going to contact Cacique Foods and tell them what I think of them.

Any suggestions?

Good for you Jennifer to write the company.

Your example reminds me of what I heard author Michale Pollan say the other day: he gives the example of rolled oats.
In their natural form, they are healthy and cheap.
Then they become cheerios - more processed, much more expensive, less healthier.
Then they become a cereal "bar".
Now he says they have something called a straw, which is "made of" cereal [about like that drink is "made of" rice!], the kids drink their milk thru this straw.
So every step, he says - added processing, subtracted goodness, and costs more money.

I thot it was an interesting point.

Sorry I don't have a suggestion, good luck with your quest.

ellen

I was in line at a store a couple weeks ago, and the cashiers were discussing how "expensive" good food is and why poor families eat and McDonalds. I just didn't have the energy to argue with them -- and I had 3 paper bags of groceries in my car that cost me $60-something and was 2 weeks worth of food. Compared to, oh, a $6 Quarter Pounder value meal at McDonalds...hmmm, 42 meals in the grocery bags, 10 meals at McDonalds...

Do I eat as healthy as I should? Not by a long shot. But I also know it's far cheaper to buy good food then convenience food.

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On a related note...I cut out caffeine more-or-less around Christmas. It was having mood-altering affects on me...and not in a good way. Now, nearly 8 weeks later I find maybe I'll have a can of caffeinated soda a couple times a week...no coffee, no daily sodas, etc. But most of the time I look at sodas -- even diet decaf sodas -- or the "junk" juices like Sobes...and think "Way too sweet!" Been drinking a lot more water again.

Ah, I'm rambling, but the last point is in some heavily Mexican areas I've heard they import (or maybe mix locally?) the Mexican recipe for Coca Cola -- which uses real sugar. The immigrants are willing to pay a premium for the taste they're used to.

Jennifer, that ingredient list is horrific. My suggestion: tell them that you're educating parents not to serve this to their children.

And don't forget Jamaica - now it's just sugar and red food coloring, no hibiscus to be found.

I know this isn't the recipe thread but we've been loving making almond milk lately - soak a cup of raw almonds overnight, then blend with 2-3 cups water in the monster-blender. Push through a sieve or cheesecloth, and it's milk! A little vanilla extract is good too.

Anyhoo, I don't know what people are thinking giving their kids soda. Even educated, affluent parents act like it's no big deal. Sugar? Caffeine? Chemicals? What's the big deal?

It might not be so bad if it actually WERE sugar. But it is h igh fructose corn syrup. IMO that stuff is evil.

Jennifer,

For those who are really tied to their soda pop, or the carbonation of it, what I like to do is a variation of what you've already discussed with them. Instead of mixing juices with plain water, I mix club soda in various juices, whatever ratio I'm in the mood for (for me tart juices are my favorite over super sweet anyway) and enjoy. I mix as I drink and the carbonation lasts longer. It's stimulating, refreshing and very fizzy.

No matter how much juice and how little club soda I use, the amount of sugar is substantially less since club soda is unsweetened, so I figure I benefit greatly over drinking soda.

My kids really like V-8 fusion, it dosne't have corn syrup in it, so it is healty, but it is rather expensive. They do drink alot of kool-aid, which is horrible I know, but what do you do? I can't get my kids to drink water hardly at all, unless it's bottled flavored water. I don't get it, but i's probably my fault for supplying them with the kool-aid, etc. But they get so ill when they don't have it. I get called a bad parent if they don't have a supply of sweet drinks in the frig. What can I do?

thatgardenfairy,

IMO, as bad as kool-aid sounds to most here, it's really not the worst you can do. For now, give them kool-aid (avoiding or limiting the "red" flavors and cutting the sugar by 1/4 cup), but try creative ways to introduce alternatives. Make your own lemonade for example or other drinks that don't take many other ingredients with water. Realistically, sugar isn't going to be totally eliminated here, but you can try other sweet choices, like honey or pure cane brown sugar, and make adding water a challenge or a game. Fruit smoothies sweetened only with very ripe frozen bananas is a great choice too.

When I was a kid in a family of nine, we got 1 8-10 oz. glass of milk or juice for breakfast, and 1 1/2 glasses of milk with dinner, and one glass of kool-aid a day (either lunch or after school), unless of course we were in school, where we got a carton of milk. Pop was only for outings and camping, and only during the summer, and that was limited to a can a day too. So guess what we drank to quench our thirst all day? My parents also gardened, canning and freezing a lot and hunted to get by and to have the extra money to take us camping, which we did often.

Don't be hard on yourself, but do try to find alternatives, and be creative!

A counter-service lunch place I go to puts lemon and cucumber slices in their big water urn. I luuurrrve it. I don't have a sweet tooth but maybe that would satisfy the urge for flavor in water?

Or a big jug of water in the fridge with other sliced fruits like strawberries or peaches?

Actually, I really like my water super ice cold.

But once kids are used to sweetened drinks. It is SOOOO hard to wean them off.

I suppose if you super slowly cut down on the amount of sugar you use, that might work. But do it VERY gradually.

If you want to try alternative drinks, try switchel. It is still used a lot by the amish in this area during haymaking time.

quote:

I wouldn't hesitate to dispose of all the sweetened drinks, I'd put everything in the garbage and when they ask for, I'd say "Sorry, dear, but water is all we drink now, and this is why"

…And then take their favorite toys and run over them with the John Deere tractor and when they cry and call you mean you can tell them "sorry dear, but playing is for sissies!"

Why not let them have a favorite drink as a treat once or twice a day? For goodness' sake, kids need SOMETHING to look forward to.

My kids got kool aid when they were little because I could control the sugar. I never ever, (even when I was a kid) mixed it with as much sugar as the package calls for. I'd only use half of the sugar or less. There are certainly worse things out there for them to drink.


When they're wanting a drink, give them a glass of water and tell them if they're still thirsty when they finish that water, then they can have a little koolaid.

I developed diabetes so I have to be very careful what I eat or drink. So I switched to diet drinks.

Now I have developed a memory problem and I find out that the reason is that almost all diet drinks use aspartame to sweeten their product and I just found out that aspartame destroys brain cells.

I agree with the sugary drinks that you can control with your own added sugar, like kool-aid. If you start cutting down slowly on the amount of sugar you use when you make it the kids (and adults) start to get used to the less sugar. Make a couple of batches with a 1/4 less, then the next time cut it by another 1/4. After awhile when they do get the real sugary stuff they probably will be going yuck this is really sweet. The already made sweet water drinks, I've heard/read are just loaded with sugar and can't be controlle. Another thing I do is take regular juice, like orange juice and use that to sweeten the regular water. There was mention of lemon wedges, I've never heard of cucumber, but think I will try that. Lime wedges and real oranges would probably be good also. I used to use phony sugar and was haveing eating binges and panic attacks. Once I weaned myselft off those, I'm felling much better and actually loosing some weight. Not a lot but the food binges aren't there anymore.