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There Are Only Four Things Young Kids Should Drink
The new recommendations are short and simple
Several leading medical and nutrition organizations just issued new recommendations on what the youngest children — infants through age five — should be drinking.
On the list: breast milk, infant formula, water, and plain milk.
Not on the list: juice or anything else.
The reasons: Sugar-laden beverages, even real juice, are bad for teeth and known to be a key contributor to the nation’s growing obesity epidemic, as well as deadly heart disease. Given that kids’ drinking patterns can be established early on, since they take a liking to whatever wonderful flavor is thrust upon them, curbing sugar from the start has real impact.
“Nearly 40,000 people in the United States die each year from heart problems due to overconsumption of sugary drinks,” says Nancy Brown, CEO of the American Heart Association, one of the groups supporting the new recommendations. “This is unhealthy and unacceptable, and the seismic shift in our culture needed to change this status quo must start with our kids.”
Sugar-laden beverages, even real juice, are bad for teeth and known to be a key contributor to the nation’s growing…
