As far as juice for my kids, I used to cut 100% juice with water, until I found a product recently that basically does it for me and serves it up in spill proof, reuseable sippy cups. First Juice is organic, and has 50% less sugar than 100% juice (but all the nutrients). Plus they have cool flavors like peach+purple carrot (not to mention the bottles are BPA free).

my mom is really into natural/alternative medicine and has been begging me to quit with the diet soda (and sending me terrifying articles about it) for the past year or two…but HEY she is the one that got me hooked on it when i was a pre-teen!

for the record, i’m drinking a diet pepsi max as i write this :\ i wish i could quit youuuu

Personally, I REALLY dislike the taste of diet sodas. If given the choice between a diet soda or water, I’d pick water every time. I don’t drink a lot of sodas period, but I’m not about to ruin a perfectly good soda with ‘artificial’ sweetners. Water or the real stuff only for me.

For babies, I water down the juice…it’s a lot less sugar and as a bonus, the juice goes further.

I do love my wine as well, PGHgirl.

Kids love chocolate milk, don’t they? Guess that’s a great way to get them to drink milk. I am not looking forward to the picky eating phase that we’re certainly going to face. He will eat anything you give him now.

As for the juice consuming toddler, I only have what my friends and famliy have recommended, which is dilute it with water.

They still make Wink? Shocking! I had no idea. i don’t think I’ve seen it since I was a kid.

I don’t ever use artificial sweeteners. Sorry, except for a tbsp. of corn syrup when I bake rhubarb (5x/ year, maybe?). I try to avoid any foods that have corn syrup but it’s HARD.

No, no juice for my toddler, unless she has the stomach flu. If others give it to her, that’s fine, but I see no point in having it around. She happily drinks water.

I surfed around their website for a bit, but it was reading this article on Sugar vs. artificial sweeteners that opened my eyes. ( http://www.feingold.org/pg-sugar.html )I am putting my “Feingold Post” as my website above if anyone would like to read my take on the diet. I don’t have ADHD but I signed up for Feingold because it all just made so much sense to me. It’s not a “diet” per se, they research companies and you can buy a foodlist (a spiral bound book) that tells you exactly which companies are completely approved. Part of your membership packet included access to the bulletin board, where you can find lots of recipes and ideas from other people across the states (and a few other countries, too) who have gone through the same ordeal of cutting these things our of their lives.

I cut my cola habit cold turkey last October, and I feel SO.MUCH.BETTER. I’ve slowly cut the other artificials out of my life and I can’t see myself ever going back. My family has likened my new awareness of food additives to someone who recently became “born again,” the more I learn the more I want to shout it all from the rooftops.

I can’t remember the last time I had a soft drink, but I do occasionally buy Boylan’s cola for Mike (which is usually used in summertime cocktails like the Cuba Libre). Actually, we’re trying to stay away from HFCS tonic waters now as well, and buying Q or FeverTree instead of Canada Dry or Schweppes.

I really think that HFCS is one of the worst things out there, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that obesity, diabetes, etc. have become such a problem since HFCS has become such a major part of our food supply.

I’m sure I’ll be burned at the stake for saying this but we live in modern industrialized world and sometimes we have to look at the good with bad. I’m guessing you generate garbage that goes to a landfill. You use some form of transportation that likely uses oil/gas. If you have electronic equipment it was likely made at a plant that used chlorinated solvents in the process. Aluminum cans are made at facilities that use a lot of oil to bend the metal.

I have been known to miss things, especially now.

Alas, I love my high fructose corn syrup. It is a very difficult habit to break. Whole Foods and some of the higher end grocery stores where I live (TX) have specialty sodas that are made with pure cane sugar. I know you can order Dr Pepper made with pure cane sugar http://www.dublindrpepper.com. Jones soda is made with pure cane sugar as well, and it has some interesting flavors.

I do give my daughter apple juice and gatorade. I try to limit my own consumption of soda, so she doesn’t get it as much as other kids do. I started out cutting the apple juice with water, but as she got older she insisted on full strength. She’s five now, and I noticed she doesn’t drink apple juice or gatorade as often anymore – she’s asking for water and milk. I think that is great!!!

(ps: do you think you’ll get some strange google search traffic to your site from this post? Mexican Coke and all??)

As for juice, we gave it to both our kids—mainly OJ. One of our pediatricians told us that was really the only juice you should give little kids (can’t remember why though). Shep prefers milk which is good. Simone hated white milk. She drank mostly chocolate milk (hello, rob’s child) but now she rarely has that. The carbs are pretty high in milk (especially chocolate) so we give her yogurt or cheese instead. Something that is more filling and still gives her calcium. If she is ‘low,’ she gets a 15 carb apple juice box, but that is about the only time she has any kind of juice. Oh, and neither of mine could stand watered down juice-had to be full strength.

i’ve been struggling with giving up soda myself. the problem is that i really, truly love it. i have about 5-7 sodas a week, on average, but i just can’t give it up. i like a mix of half diet/half regular.

I will probably birth a baby with four extra legs because of it.

I also use real butter, full fat maple syrup, ice cream made from milk and cream, natural peanut butter, Simply Fruit as my jelly, etc. etc. Making something diet or low fat usually means putting something fake in it, and I would rather get my calories honestly. Mostly honestly. I’m glad you mentioned the South Beach bars thing – I got a coupon for them and so I bought my first box to try it. It’s ok, but I prefer my LUNA bars!

I have close friends who are passionate about fat free butter, fat free sour cream, diet soda, lite syrup, lo-cal blah blah blah. The thing is, I’m thinner than they are. I’m willing to bet I’m healthier, too. And my food tastes better. All these little shortcuts do not necessarily a healthier person make.

As for juice – I only buy 100% juice, and I cut it with sparkling water. Tasty. I think juice has been getting a somewhat bad rap lately. It’s not as good as eating whole fruit, and it does have sugar. But at least you aren’t getting nothing for your calories – there are nutrients in there. And it’s a tasty alternative to water. So – I’m pro juice! And I vote!

Why is there no love for the grapefruit soda?

According to the website: “Our beverages are all natural with no preservatives, no artificial colors and only natural flavors.”

If you are interested in HFCS, you should check out the movie “King Corn.” After seeing it, we went home and threw away everything we had which contained HFCS. It’s a really interesting look at why corn is in just about everything we eat.

My sister loves the splenda. I am horrified that she puts like 3 in her coffee.