Sipahh Straws: Artificial Sweeteners for Kids
Sipahh straws are an ingenious invention. Rather than having milk sweetened with sugar, these special straws contain all the flavoring and sweetener within the straw itself. Suck up the milk and it gets flavored on the way up.
Sipahh have gone worldwide - McDonald's Australia and New Zealand have both included Sipahh in their Happy Meals for kids.
So what is Sipahh like?
Beverage industry blog BevNet gives their take:
Honestly, I was quite surprised to see artificial sweeteners as part of the ingredients. These products are for kids -- What kid is going to be tricked into drinking milk with aftertaste of artificial sweeteners? Do parents really want their kids drinking sucralose and acesulfame potassium? I sure don’t.
Sipahh ingredients: tapioca starch, sugar, artificial flavor, ace-k and sucralose.
The Bevnet blog concludes that each flavor has a "lingering sweetener aftertaste" - something which kids will tire of quickly.
So now the sugar debate is centered on our kids. Fruit juice, milk sweetened with sugar, or with Ace-k and Splenda.
Provided highly sweetened food is an occasional thing rather than a staple - I don't see the need to get hysterical. Health and obesity issues aside - I believe we have a problem with the way we condition our taste buds to very sweet foods.
Later on down the track the conditioning becomes addiction.
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I bought these for my grandkid's Easter baskets and they didn't care for them at all!
ReplyI agree that a sugary treat on occasion is not a problem -- Heck, I do it myself. But it's like we train ourselves and our kids to always grab for the sugar.
More and more, I become convinced that sugar is one of the main culprits in obesity.
Brian
ReplyYes I've noticed more sucralose being marketed to kids. It's worrisome when you know the testing prior to the FDA approval was rather limited, and that most clinical studies are skewed with results more indicative of how adult males (most often studied) will react to a compound, not little children and/or women.
capri sun has a sucralose kids beverage:
Replyhttp://www.kraftfoods.com/caprisun/1_2_Roarin_Waters.html
Hum. When I was young, I loved milk; I didn't need a sweetener to entice me to drink it. Is this generally true with kids now? If not, then I could see someone arguing that this product might increase milk consumption without increasing sugar consumption.
I think we need to teach children to identify sugar in their diets and the effects of the sugar. The articles I found are focused on tooth decay; I've not found any articles linking increased sugar consumption in children and childhood obesity or type II diabetes.
Here's an article you might find interesting on teaching children about sugar.
ReplyIsn't milk already chock-full of sugar (lactose)?
ReplyAwesome Idea!
ReplyIt sounds kinda gross, I don't know.
ReplyThere are 1001 way to give your kid the sugar he/she don't need a day.. this is one of them.
ReplyI still think this is not solving any problem. We are training our kids to only eat and drink things that are sweet. They may work but I do not believe it is the best idea.
Reply
ReplySucralose is terrible for a person, your body doesn't know what to do with it. They're better off eating sugar.
Kailash - yes, milk IS full of sugar. We don't need to add more. I agree that the occasional (say, every few weeks) sugar treat is not the end of the world if you and your children exercise and eat healthily every day. But this is unfortunate because it's using an unhealthy product to "bribe" children into consuming another product that is really not very healthy anyway.
ReplyI have to put my thoughts in on this. So first off, yes, milk does contain lactose. However, I don't lump lactose in with other sugars, or even any other carbohydrate. Rheo Blair, the greatest nutritionist in bodybuilding, shunned fruits but felt that lactose was important to building muscle. It is the only animal carbohydrate and a great protein sparer. His protein powder deliberately contained a good amount of lactose.
Second, the health of milk really depends on your source. I rank raw milk from pasture-fed cows to be one of the healthiest foods available, along with pasture-fed eggs and pasture-fed beef liver.
ReplyWe always drank plain milk growing up and it was fine. Chocolate milk was a special treat and we only got it occasionally and even then, we thought it was too sweet. I actually think these things are pretty nasty-looking.
ReplySince the begining I have tricked my son with sweet things, like chocolate milk. I take his sippy cup fill it 90% with regular milk then pour in enough chocolate milk that it turns a beige color pop the lid on and give it to him. Kids will believe what you tell them to believe. Same with pop if we do eat out I have them fill his glass to the top with ice. This really limits how much pop he is getting. But I don't agree with giving a kid chemical sweetners. Give him or her an apple when they ask for candy. A kid will eat what you give it if you only give it one choice. And this form of parenting is working as my child is incredibly healthy. All you have to remember is two things: they WILL mimic you and your behavior and limit the choices that you give them. They are children and they can't handle certain choices themselves or be expected to. If you buy and eat crap they will in turn learn this behavior.
ReplyWell said: "I believe we have a problem with the way we condition our taste buds to very sweet foods. Later on down the track the conditioning becomes addiction." So, this type of product is horribly irresponsible. Sugars are health killers. Why do we think kids are immune from the dangers of sugars just because...they're kids?
ReplyMy daughter tried them about a month ago. She finished the pack they were in, but she wasn't too impressed. The only good thing I can say about them is they're a lot neater than loose powders or syrups one would use to flavor the milk.
ReplyI think sweets has something to do with convincing a child to drink milk everyday, especially if their meal is not that healthy.
ReplyI don't know why people introduce sweets to children. Breastmilk is not at all sweet on the first place.
Alex, Breast milk is sweet. Believe me I should know.
ReplyWhat were you doing? Testing it out to make sure you got it right? Did you think you were going to mess up breast milk? :-)
ReplyYou don't have to voluntarily taste something to know what it tastes like. Regardless the point is that it is sweet.
ReplyThey sound nasty! My kids are GREAT milk drinkers (unless it's 2% or homo, then they won't touch it. I don't blame them) and real chocolate milk is a treat to be enjoyed on the occasions we go to Rotten Ronnie's (I'd rather they have chocolate milk than pop). I certainly wouldn't allow my kids to ingest these.
ReplyI don't think it's a good idea. Some drinks like milk and chocolate, especially those that are made for kids already have a certain amount of sugar. Using sippah straw will only increase our kid's sugar intake.
ReplyMuch of the above does not address health of kids. Kids like sweet products because their bodies demand the energy needed from sugar. The problem arises when these kids store this energy and begin living a sedentary life, like watching TV, or sitting in front of computers. Reducing intake to match a low energy life is no solution. Getting kids to drink milk which is low GI with a low calorie Sipahh is a much better way to intake slow release energy than drinking "hit" energy sodas which is 1/3 sugar. You want to keep more of an eye on products like Nesquik which some of the flavors are 99% sugar. Worse, they are not portion controlled. The sipahh is. It tastes great, but addictive it is not.
ReplyYou are cool! I'll go try tricking Luc into eating ice cream when it's pure alien intestines.
ReplyYou are cool! I'll go try tricking Luc into eating ice cream when it's milk, carrots or better yet, rice. But my family still buys us junk like chips and we (even I myself) eat it.
ReplyChuck these junk away and stop poisoning kids with milk....simple!
ReplyRead about intrinsic and extrinsic sugars!
A factory can only make money if it has what is questionably called 'added value' to a product. i.e adding highly concentrated juice and sugar to water and then selling it on as a health drink.
water from the tap: cost neglegible
juice from an orange: cost a few pence
no sugar: free
same from a factory: cost 1000% more (added value)
and full of poisons because they are cheap and great ad. campaign that makes you look stupid if you don't buy it....rant,rant,rant.
ReplyThought for today is:
If you have to read the label it's 99.9% bound to be bad for you.
ReplyI'm getting more and more worried
http://www.westonaprice.org/modernfood/dirty-secrets.html
ReplyI think I grew up with the opposite effect than what most of you are talking about.
When I was younger, pretty much all we had in the house were sweets. Sure, we'd have lunch and dinner, but other than that sweets sweets and more sweets. If you wanted something to eat, that's the only thing that could be found in the house.
Anyway, whenever we got vegetables instead, it always seemed like a treat to me. I loved veggies and begged my parents to get them for me every time we went to the store. Sometimes they would, sometimes they wouldn't. But I grew up in a home like that, and now I don't really think sweets are anything special. I enjoy them occasionally, but I get sick of them quickly. But I still love vegetables.
Replysucralose? shudderrrr.
ReplyCAN ANYONE TELL ME whats the cows name on the picture?? anyone
Reply