Sugar!

[fruitloop]

For me, the reason I don't serve juice to the dck's or to my own kids (except occassionally for a treat) has a few parts. First of all, it is very concentrated...I think a glass of orange juice is made from something like 6 oranges...which you would never sit down and eat in one sitting! So it is a lot of sugar even if it is a natural sugar. Also, they are then missing the fiber part that comes with the actual fruit. Also, when they drink juice, it tends to fill them up and doesn't leave enough space for more nutritious foods in the tummies. I have seen parents give their kids a glass of juice and then wonder why they won't eat dinner and their behaviour goes out of wack. I am certainly not a fanatic and the occassional glass of juice here and there is fine in my opinion, but on a daily basis I just don't see the need for it.

Yup...this exactly! I don't serve juice and rather both my own children and the dck get their intake of water, and then eat their fruit instead of drink it. Water is a very important "non food group" that many people don't get enough of so I try to promote it and have kids enjoy drinking water instead of something that is always flavored.

As for the sugar, I serve a lot of organics and it's made with sugar cane or honey for sweetening usually. When I bake, I use apple sauce or brown sugar to sweeten but I don't bake a ton. I rarely feed junky type sweets...well, sweets period really.