As my kids walk from school to swimming they pass a 7-Eleven and a Boost juice business and often want a drink. A Slurpee costs around a dollar while a juice costs about six times as much. They came to me today requesting more pocket money so they could afford the more expensive, premium and ‘healthier’ Boost juice.
A suspicious lightbulb lit in my head questioning whether the claim that one was healthier than the other was based on fact rather than fiction.
A few facts:
- a medium (450ml) Mango magic, the kids favourite, has 1410kJ and 59.8g of carbohydrates.
- a large (650ml) raspberry Slurpee has 774kJ and 44.9g of carbohydrates.
- a healthy adult needs 8500kJ per day according to World Health Organisation recommendations with only 5% or 25g as sugar. Most of those carbohydrates in both drinks are simple sugars. So thats 17% of daily requirements for energy in the Boost and 9% in the Slurpee. Both provide more sugar than is really good for anyone (if you hadn’t guessed.)
So the sugary Slurpee is looking good, but are there any other reasons to look for the benefits of natural fruit? I was wondering about dietary fibre which is often sourced from fresh fruits but sadly the Mango Magic has only 2g of fibre. A little bonus is that both drinks have very little fat (0g for the Slurpee and 4g for the Boost).
Two further things that I can’t quantify: The coach won’t allow kids to arrive with a Slurpee cup and, the Boost is more ‘filling’. I never can win a debate with the kids but there’s no reason here to bump up the pocket money.
Very good post. I will be dealing with some of these issues as well.. Stephanie Khalil Thorley