Are Capri Sun pouch drinks bad for you?

Question

My 8 year old son loves his Grape Capri Suns. My husband keeps telling him that he shouldn't drink them because they are bad for him. I don't understand because on the packaging itself it says NO ARTIFICIAL COLORS, FLAVORS, OR PRESERVATIVES. It also says 25% less sugar and made from grape juice concentrate and other natural flavors. On weekdays after school he will drink probably 2-3 and on the weekends he may drink 5-7 a day. My husband is convinced these are bad for my son. What do you think?

Answer 1

That's a LOT of sugar ... and a LOT of potential damage to his teeth!

If you ask a dentist, he/she will tell you that the only thing a child should EVER drink is milk or water.

OK, that's unrealistic ... but soda and other sweetened drinks, even sweetened juice drinks, are very unhealthy.  Pure juice would be better, but not in the amount that your son drinks.  Once a day, maybe ...

Why not just buy some actual grape juice, and let him have a serving a day?  And make sure he's brushing his teeth after!

Answer 2

Nothing can really be good for you when you have that many.  There's enough sugar in those to give a rhino a sugar rush and then a crash, and natural grape juice is much better.

Answer 3

yea, especially in that amount. Anytime you have a juice and it's "sweetened with concentrate" it might as well be made with high fructose corn syrup, it's that bad.

At least switch him over to real juice ("from concentrate" is ok, just "sweetened with" is bad)

Answer 4

The catch there is 25% less sugar then what?

They are loaded with sugar, then they decide to reformulate and reduce the sugar by 25% from a already rediculous amount that they already had and your still stuck with a sugar loaded beverage.

So the issue your husband is talking about is probably the sugar content.

( I'm guessing here though).

Answer 5

Official US Guidelines advise a maximum of 40g refined sugar for every 2000 calories consumed.

If Capri Sun has 18g of sugars, then this is nearly half his total daily allowance of sugars in one small drink. If he is drinking 2-3 a day, then this is 1 and a half times as much as he is supposed to have. If he is drinking 5-7 a day on the weekends, this is 90-126g of sugar a day! Way more than the FDA suggests for human consumption.

Just because it doesn't contain high fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, hippopotamus's or elves, that doesn't mean it's GOOD for him. You have to look at what's actually in it instead of what's NOT in it. Sugar water is sugar water. Period.

On the other hand, fruit juice is cheap if you buy it in cans and mix it with a little water. It takes more effort than handing him a pouch of sugar water, but it is worth it to keep him healthy.