And IS IT WHAT?For those who occasionally want to pamper their children with sweets and still want to be responsible, it sounds ideal: lemonade syrup with pure fruit and only 0 percent sugar. Or not? Experts judge this based on the growing number of products.
Lemonade syrup doesn’t have a bad reputation when it comes to health. Going by the slogans of three well-known brands, Karvan Cévitam is the ‘fruity thirst quencher’, Teisseire is ‘pure and made from real ingredients’ and with Slimpie it is ‘responsible enjoyment’. Sounds nice, and it’s not completely untrue, because in the base syrup is indeed made from fruit. The juice of the original fruit is processed, according to Femke Boekhorst, dietician at Healthy.nl† The moisture is extracted until a highly concentrated syrup is formed, or a fruit concentrate.
On the label of most syrups, fruit concentrate is somewhere at the top of the list, supplemented with additives such as sugars, aromas and vitamins. Karvan Cévitam pontifically puts ’75 percent pure fruit in the bottle’, which actually includes fruit concentrate. The difference is important, since the concentrate has very little to do with fresh fruit, Boekhorst emphasizes. “During the processing process, the important components from fruit are largely lost, such as vitamins, minerals and dietary fiber. The latter, for example, provide a feeling of satiety and good bowel function.”
Vitamins are negligible in lemonade
According to Martijn Katan, professor of nutrition at the Free University of Amsterdam, the fruit concentrate is no more than ‘an elegant form of sugar’. It adds little to nothing in terms of nutritional value, and only contains fruit sugars. By the way, what Karvan Cévitam does very ingeniously, the experts note, is that the brand adds extra vitamins to the lemonade syrup: B3, B5, B6, C and E. Boekhorst is not impressed with that either: ,,The overall vitamin content intake is still negligible. It’s mainly a clever trick to make syrup look healthy.”
Moreover – and that is Katan’s overall verdict – children should not get their vitamins from lemonade at all. ,,How about normal food: wholemeal bread, margarine, milk, vegetables, a little meat and fish, etc..” Syrup is not part of our regular diet for both experts – that also applies to the children. “Sugars in juices slide in unnoticed, don’t satiate, and get children used to sweet drinks,” Katan said.
Sugar vs Sweetener
Instead, the advice is to mainly serve children water and tea, although parents probably cannot avoid a glass of lemonade every now and then, the experts agree. In that case, there are also 0 percent sugar syrups on the shelves. In addition to the naturally present sugars (read: fruit concentrate), the manufacturer has not added anything to free sugars in this syrup. Sweeteners have been chosen instead.
Manufacturers use stevioglycosides and sucralose (Karvan Cévitam and Teisseire) and sucralose and acesulfame-K (Slimpie)† “In all these cases it concerns – what you call – intensive sweeteners. These are no less than two to three hundred times sweeter than regular table sugar. You can therefore assume that these syrups have a very tasty, sweet taste,” says Boekhorst. Although the use of the sweeteners has been found to be safe, she certainly does not recommend unlimited lemonade. “Children reach the acceptable daily intake faster than adults. This is already possible with a few glasses a day (about 2 to 3), and there is still a lot unclear about the long-term effects of the frequent, intensive use of sweeteners.”
Sweeteners instead of sugar seem to have a small, beneficial effect on body weight
Moreover – and this is very important, according to both experts – the ultra-sweet flavors promote habituation, which makes children crave even more sweets. Not handy if you want to prevent obesity and dental problems, Katan thinks. The sweeteners in Karvan Cévitam, Teisseire and Slimpie do have a big advantage. Unlike regular sugar, they provide little to no calories.
“Sweeteners instead of sugar can make children less fat,” says Katan. Although at the same time there is a lot of uncertainty about the subject among researchers, and to what extent sweeteners help with obesity. “Sweeteners instead of sugar seem to have a small, beneficial effect on body weight,” says Jaap Seidell, professor of Nutrition and Health. But be aware: “Using it is not an effective way of losing weight.”
Final verdict
Conclusion: Both experts prefer the syrup without added sugars. Although it also contains sugar – disguised as fruit sugars from the fruit concentrate – it does contain considerably less. The main thing is that syrup is a delicacy for now and then. “Basically, give children as many pure products as possible without sugar or sweeteners, so that they learn to appreciate unprocessed products such as fruit,” says Boekhorst.
It doesn’t matter to Boekhorst whether it matters which of the three ‘sugarless’ variants you buy (Karvan Cévitam, Teisseire or Slimpie). One sweetener is not necessarily better than the other. Which kind you choose depends on your taste, many people don’t like stevioglycosides, because it gives a bitter aftertaste.” Katan chooses – if he has to – for Slimpie, because it really contains zero sugars; because the brand uses as little fruit concentrate as possible.
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