Hidden sugars in common fruit drinks are contributing to childhood obesity

Hidden sugars in common fruit drinks are contributing to childhood obesity according to The Director of Human Health at Safefood  Dr Cliodhna Foley Nolan. Many parents hold the view that words like "juice" or "fruit" on drinks labels suggest that the drink contains little calories. However, she said drinks such as "those that say 'high-fruit', 'ready-to-drink' or smoothies have a wide range of sugar content in them". Dr Foley-Nolan was speaking as Safefood has produced an info-graphic identifying how much sugar is in sweetened drinks.

Safefood said that many of the drinks it compared contained as much sugar as fizzy drinks. For example, a 200ml serving of a popular juice drink contained 20g of sugar, which compared with 21.2g of sugar in Coca-Cola and Pepsi and 22.4g of sugar in 7Up. So really, the logic is to have a satsuma or some grapes instead of the juice," she said.

Obesity Specialist with the HSE Professor Donal O'Shea said there is clear evidence that "links the consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks to overweight and obesity among children and adolescents".He said parents need to start viewing these drinks as "threats not treats" and not something to be had every day. 

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Click here to view Info-graphic chart