Healthy Juices for Healthy Kids

Book excerpt: Making sure you consume enough fresh fruit and vegetables is now recognised as one of the best ways of keeping in good shape and ensuring a happier, longer life. Children who enjoy a healthy, varied diet are more likely to be full of energy, suffer fewer illnesses and concentrate better at school. Children grow rapidly between the ages of five and twelve, so they need a good supply of vitamins. Encouraging good habits from an early age could have a significant effect on health throughout adolescence and in later life. However, making sure that kids drink healthily is not always easy, and good intentions can often fall by the wayside. Healthy Juices for Healthy Kids focuses on adding healthy drinks to your diet, rather than denying yourself the things you love. The juices, smoothies and treats in this book are about striking a balance between healthy drinking and ingredients that children enjoy. Healthy juices shouldn't mean boring drinks or denying treats, but providing a diet that is varied, good for you and delicious. The chapters cover breakfast juices and smoothies, mid-morning snacks, afternoon treats, lollies, crushes and slushes and bedtime soothers. Each recipe has a nutritional note, highlighting the benefits of a particular ingredient, and there will be useful tips and variations throughout.