reading

First published in 2010 by New Holland Publishers (UK) Ltd
London · Cape Town · Sydney · Auckland

Garfield House
86–88 Edgware Road
London W2 2EA
United Kingdom
www.newhollandpublishers.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers and copyright holders.

Senior Editor: Corinne Masciocchi
Designer: Lucy Parissi
Photographer: Ian Garlick
Home economy and food styling: Wendy Sweetser
Production: Laurence Poos
Editorial Direction: Rosemary Wilkinson

Reproduction by Pica Digital PTE Ltd, Singapore
Printed and bound by Tien Wah Press (PTE) Ltd, Singapore

images introduction

images breakfast juices and smoothies

images mid-morning snacks

images afternoon treats and party time

images ice lollies, crushes and slushies

images bedtime soothers

images index

‘Please Mum, I’m thirsty, can I have a drink?’ is a cry mothers are all too familiar with and it’s true that children do need plenty of liquids to stop them becoming dehydrated. Due to their low body weight, children are more vulnerable than adults to the effects of dehydration and this can cause not just tiredness, headaches and mood swings but make it difficult for them to concentrate too. It can also prevent the digestive system from working efficiently as bowels need plenty of fluid to avoid constipation.

Fresh juices and smoothies contain lots of nutrients to help keep children healthy and are a useful way of ensuring that picky eaters, who normally turn their noses up at fruit and vegetables, add to their recommended daily allowance.

Fruit and vegetable juices are an excellent source of vitamins, particularly vitamin C. This valuable vitamin helps children absorb iron from their food and build up their immune systems to protect them against bacteria and viruses. The recommended daily allowances of vitamin C vary slightly from country to country but the following can be taken as a guide:

* For 14 to 18 year olds, 75 mg is the recommended daily allowance for boys and 65 mg for girls.

The recommended daily allowances for adults are 75 mg for women and 90 mg for men. As a 250-ml (9 fl-oz) glass of freshly squeezed orange juice contains around 120 mg of vitamin C, it’s easy to see just how valuable a contribution a juice can make to a healthy, balanced diet.

Smoothies, where fruit or vegetables are puréed with milk or yoghurt, can also play an important part in keeping your kids healthy. Milk, the ultimate superfood, is packed with a range of nutrients including calcium, protein, zinc, iodine and vitamins A and B and, as whole fruit are used to make smoothies, the resulting drinks also contain dietary fibre. Calcium is essential for strong teeth and bones, whilst protein repairs body tissues like muscles and zinc boosts the immune system. Iodine is needed to help the body convert food to energy, vitamin A is important for good eyesight, vitamin B for healthy growth, and dietary fibre keeps the body regular.

Yoghurt is low in fat, high in calcium and good for the digestive tract but it’s best to opt for natural yoghurt that contains probiotic bacteria and sweeten it yourself with a little honey, if necessary, rather than buy a flavoured yoghurt that can contain large amounts of sugar or artificial sweeteners. Although skimmed milk should not be given to children under five years old, after that age low-fat yoghurt and skimmed or semi-skimmed milk can be used to make drinks.

When sweetening juices, honey is a better choice than sugar as honey increases the level of protective antioxidants in the blood and softens sharper juices with its own warm, rounded flavour. Maple syrup is another natural sweetener that, amongst a range of health benefits, contains zinc and manganese to help the immune system.

Whilst persuading children to have a drink is rarely a problem, the difficult part can be steering them away from heavily sweetened juice drinks, squashes and fizzy pop in favour of a healthier option. Children have a naturally sweet tooth and many consume too much sugar from fizzy drinks that are high in additives and low in nutrients and can lead to a variety of problems such as hyperactivity, weight gain and tooth decay. A single can of ordinary cola contains an eye-watering 10 teaspoons of sugar, so as well as being nutritionally poor value, it’s high in calories too.

The two healthiest drinks for kids are without question plain water and milk, and all children should be encouraged to consume plenty of both. But, like adults, children thrive on variety so including healthy options such as homemade fruit juices and smoothies will not only add interest to what they drink but increase the amount of fresh fruit and vegetables in their diet.

Can my children get all their recommended daily portions of fruit and vegetables from juices and smoothies?

When juice is extracted from a fruit or vegetable, the fibre content is greatly reduced so the nutritional benefit is less than if you were to eat the whole fruit. For this reason a 150 ml (¼ pt) glass of juice counts as only one of the five recommended daily portions, however many different kinds of fruit and vegetables are used to make it. Juice can also only count as one portion a day, regardless of how many glasses are drunk, as the nutritional benefits from juice are lower than those from whole fruit and vegetables. It must also be 100% pure juice or juice from concentrate, as squashes and ‘juice drinks’ contain added water and sugar so cannot be counted.

Smoothies, on the other hand, are made by crushing whole fruit or vegetables with juice, so they contain higher levels of carbohydrate, fibre, energy, sugars and vitamin C than pure juices. A 250 ml (9 fl oz) glass of smoothie made with 150 ml (¼ pt) fruit juice and 80 g (3 oz) fruit is equal to two portions of the RDA.

Frozen, canned, bottled and reconstituted dried fruit, as well as fresh, can all be used, enabling you to make a wide variety of juices even when your kids’ favourite fruits are out of season. When making drinks using canned or bottled fruit, choose those canned in fruit juice rather than syrup to avoid the extra sugar. The juice from the can or bottle can also be added to the drink for extra flavour.

Naturally sweet vegetables that are popular with children, such as carrots and cucumber, are particularly good, as are other vegetables like spinach and beetroot that are not usually junior crowd-pleasers. Juicing vegetables with fruit not only helps mask their flavour – beetroot in particular can taste rather earthy on its own – it can also produce spectacularly coloured drinks, such as bright orange when carrots are added or a rich purple with beetroot.

I prefer not to add sugar to my kids’ drinks but will they complain they’re not sweet enough?

Although individual tastes vary, the juice recipes in this book should be sweet enough without the necessity to add extra sugar. All fruit and vegetable juices, whether they’re ones you’ve made yourself or bought ready made, tend to be sweeter than the individual ingredients used to make them as natural sugars in the fruit and vegetables become concentrated when their juice is extracted.

Some fruits such as pears, mangoes and strawberries are naturally very sweet so, when using these to make a drink, it’s worth combining them with sharper flavours such as citrus fruits to ensure a good balance. Taste the finished juice and if you feel your children will complain that it’s too sharp, add a little runny honey or maple syrup to sweeten it if necessary. Alternatively, you can just change the balance of ingredients in a recipe by cutting down the quantity of citrus or leaving it out altogether. If you do add honey or maple syrup to a juice, it’s important to do this just before serving as the longer a juice is left to stand the more its flavours – including its natural sweetness – will develop.

Older children and teenagers are likely to have more sophisticated palates than their younger siblings so a particularly sweet juice may need sharpening with the addition of a squeeze of fresh lemon or lime juice to suit their taste.

contents