With so many milk mixes in the market and their big health claims, finding an honest, healthy option can be challenging. Navigating those enticing aisles in the supermarket (or the online searches on Amazon!), you don't want to pick a 'health drink' that harms your health with sugar and processed ingredients for those 'Essential Nutrients'.
You want no nasties and the right balance of nutrition, taste and convenience - after all this is a daily use product. Let's explore what to check to determine if a milk mix is genuinely good for you. There are three key criteria to examine - source of sweetness, source for main nutrition (protein and healthy fats) and source of flavour - so lets look at them one by one.
1. Sugar: The Sweet Dilemma
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Did you know? Recently, a popular children's health drink promising to boost height and muscle growth was found to have 49.8g of sugar for every 100g of the product, most of which was in the form of refined sugar. |
Refined Sugar is the most common "nasties" in the so-called health drinks. Some mass-loved malt drinks have almost 50% sugar content, comprising of plain old refined sugar and malted cereals. How these sugary drinks benefit the body with the remaining 50% of the ingredients is a mystery.
Of course, sugar adds sweetness to life, but too much sugar leads to too many health disorders like increased cravings, diabetes, and weight gain. It can be addictive, especially for kids, making it a habit as they grow older. It is essential to find a balance.
Typically, you shall find one of the following three types of sugar and sweetness in your foods.
a. Refined Sugar
With various names like table sugar, brown sugar, sucrose, maltose, glucose, and fructose, sugar finds its way, but is it any good? Well, it offers you no nutrition but empty calories, along with leftover chemicals from manufacturing process.
How do you identify sneaky sugar? Check the ingredients that end with ‘ose’.
The safe amount of added sugar depends on your caloric intake, activity level, and many other factors. However, it is generally advised to avoid it as it doesn't contribute positively to your health. Especially in daily nutrition for kids!
b. Highly Processed Sweeteners
Even a 'No Sugar Added' claim does not make a product free of sugar. Some brands add sneaky sweeteners like FOS (fructooligosaccharides).
Often marketed as 'healthier alternatives', these are intensely processed and provide a heavy dose of fibre with unclear long term effect on gut health, resulting in gut issues.
As a thumb rule, you should avoid ultra processed ingredients as much as you can.
c. Artificial Sweeteners
Popular sweeteners like sucralose and aspartame are 'zero-calories' - however, research suggests potential adverse health consequences from their regular use such as bad gut health, uncontrolled weight gain, liver and kidney diseases, etc.
According to IARC, Aspartame is classified as “possibly carcinogenic to humans”. Artificial sweetener, Cyclamate is banned in the US because it’s linked to causing cancer.
Furthermore, research has shown that artificial sweeteners may cause us to crave more sweet foods and drinks, leading to sugar addiction in children - causing obesity and even anxiety.
To be sure, these negative effects are associated with extremely high dosages. In small doses, these are deemed safe. However, why chose an artificial product when natural alternatives are present, especially when long term effects of regular use of artificial sweeteners is unclear?
So, which sugar is okay?
Natural sweeteners like dehydrated dates and figs are the safest choices you can trust for your well–being in moderate quantities. Unlike sugar, they do not have only empty calories but also provide vitamins, minerals, and some fibre. They won’t give you a sugar rush followed by a sugar crash but maintain your glucose levels that keeps you satiated for a long time due to their lower glycemic index. These ingredients also require no chemicals for manufacturing (unlike all three categories mentioned above).
Coconut jaggery and date palm jaggery also have similar advantages over refined sugar and artifical sweeteners. Natural sweeteners like stevia and monk fruit provide similar sweetness without any calories.
While these natural options have a significantly higher price tag, they are worth adding to your diet.
Now, let’s move to the next factor you should not overlook in milk mixes.
2. Size Matters
Found a milk drink mix with wholesome ingredients?
That's great, but are you getting their benefits?
Their quantities per serving will give you the answer.
The ingredients are listed in order, starting from the highest-quantity ingredient and ending with the lowest-quantity ingredient. Combine that with serving size, and you can more or less figure out how much of those wholesome ingredients are you getting in one serving on daily basis.
It is important to note that healthy ingredients like millets and pulses do not mean much in your health drink milk mix. For example, even if a milk mix powder has 20% millets and 20% pulses, it only means 5gm of each every time you use that product (typical serving size 25gm). In contrast, a typical roti contains 25-30gm wheat flour, while a bowl of dal contains 25gm of raw pulses. Much better to include some millets in your atta and ensure you eat enough pulses in your main meals!
Change the ingredients to 5-10gm of nuts, suddenly the nutritional profile completely changes.
Hence, before adding to the cart, check the list of ingredients and assess if the healthy ingredients mentioned in the list mean much in one serving.
3. The Flavour Battle
Most brands include artificial flavours. Very smartly, they sneak synthetic chemicals instead of any real ingredients. You may be having a kesar pista milkshake with no kesar and no pista, and still appreciate its rich flavour.
Regular consumption of artificial flavours is shown to have many side effects, such as fatigue, dizziness, and even allergic reactions. Artificial stuff is, well, artificial.
Don’t fall for the 'No Artificial Flavours' tag though. It doesn't imply a green flag. You may find health drinks with nature-identical flavors. Often misunderstood as natural, they are also artificially made in the lab.
Nothing beats the real thing, so choose real ingredients and, if needed, natural flavours extracted from those real ingredients because these are much more natural than the first 2 types of flavours..
While they are more expensive than synthetic alternatives, it's essential to remember that a milk mix is to be consumed regularly, and even a small proportion of ingredients makes a difference.
Making an Informed Choice
When choosing a milk mix powder for health drink, prioritize quality ingredients and look for transparency on the label. While ‘bone health support’, ‘weight control’, etc. sound like great benefits when mentioned on the front of pack, you should judge based on objective information given on the back of the pack - list of ingredients and nutritional value.
Look out for other 'nasties' - the artificial compounds hiding as additives in the form of preservatives, stabilizers, emulsifiers, foaming agents, anti-caking agents, acidity regulator, anti-oxidants.
Also important is protein content (as mentioned in the nutritional table). Anything less than 20-25% protein - is it really a health drink mix? Also look for high unsaturated fats (the 'good' guys), compared to saturated fats.
In summary, always be mindful of refined sugar content and presence of artificial sweeteners, highly processed ingredients, artificial and nature-identical flavours, other chemicals like preservatives and stabilizers, and finally - nutritional content (protein and unsaturated fats). Small choices and habits can make a big difference in yours and your kids' health, so choose wisely and choose healthily.
Frequently Asked Questions
Question: How to select a health drink for children?
Answer: There are many factors to check when buying a health drink. You should always check presence of refined sugar and artificial sweeteners, nutritional information (protein and unsaturated fats), quality of ingredients and type of flavours used. It is best to avoid chemical additives and artificial and nature-identical flavours as milk mixes are consumed daily.
Question: Are flavours safe in milk mix powders?
Answer: Yes. Flavouring agents used in milk mixes are generally safe. However, you should prefer natural flavours over artificial flavouring agents.
Question: Which type of sugar is safe in a health drink mix?
Answer: You should avoid refined sugar and artificial sweeteners. Look for options with natural sweeteners like dates, figs, coconut jaggery and natural sweeteners as stevia and monk fruit.
Note: The above is for information purposes only, sourced from generally available scientific research and not intended to be qualified medical advice. Speak to a nutritionist to make the best dietary choices for you and your family.