Remember in the old days when your parents used to add almonds, raisins or saffron to your milk to give it flavour and nutrition? Nowadays, parents like us end up giving our kids health drinks like Complan, Bournvita, Boost or Horlicks without a second thought. We are insecure about our kids not getting enough nutrition, or want to give them ‘the extra edge’ in sports/ education/ all round development, or are simply guilty about them not eating a balanced diet…

See through the Marketing Gimmicks!!

While producers claim that these drinks provide ‘fortified dietary supplement’ to provide ‘high quality nutrition’ or ‘a balanced mix of high-quality, essential protein, fat and carbohydrate’, is it really the truth? Busy and over protective parents are vulnerable targets, as are gullible young children watching their favourite sportsmen, or smart children winning competitions because they drink a yummy chocolate drink. Wish it was that simple…

The Truth

In any product, do remember that ingredients are listed in order of their proportion. So the first 3 ingredients matter the most, and they are what you are primarily eating. With this in mind, let’s look at the common ingredients in most of these health drinks:

Horlicks - Malted barley, milk solids, sugar, wheat flour, malted wheat, minerals, protein isolate, emulsifier, salt, acidity regulator, vitamins, natural color
Bournvita - Malt extract, sugar, cocoa solids, milk solids, caramel, liquid glucose, permitted emulsifiers, vitamins, minerals, raising agent, salt
Complan - Skimmed milk, lactose, vegetable oil, maltodextrin, sugar, glucose syrup, fat reduced cocoa powder, dextrose, flavourings, magnesium sulphate, thickener (xanthan gum), vitamin mix, mineral mix.
Boost - Malted barley, wheat flour, sugar, milk solids, minerals, colour, glucose, salt, acidity regulator, cocoa powder, vitamin, protein isolate, edible fiber, nature identical flavouring substances

If we make a chart to see the composition of the average ‘health drink’, here’s how it would look like…

Does it still look so healthy to you? Your child would have to be shockingly malnourished to derive actual benefit from these drinks!

Let me translate some of the ingredients:

1) Wheat flour etc – All grains get converted to sugars and nutrients.

2) Refined and processed sugars
Sugar/ glucose syrup/ invert syrup/ Lactose/ Caramel/ Malted Barley or Malted Wheat (sweetener derived from barley, wheat) etc – These are present in levels MUCH HIGHER than body requirement, and which are only added for flavor.

High sugar levels and a relatively sedentary lifestyle that children lead
today has led to the highest ever levels of
• Childhood obesity
• Juvenile diabetes
• Low immunity
• Attention disorders
• Other lifestyle diseases.

3) Edible vegetable oil/ milk fat/ sunflower oil/ etc – Vegetable oils result in formation of molecules more toxic than trans fats.

4) Highly processed additives:
Skimmed milk powder, raising agent for foaming, cocoa solids, Whey powder/ Protein isolates (protein extract), nature identical Colours/ flavours , emulsifying Agents for stabilizing the processed.
These additives undergo heat or irradiation treatments that destroy or alter their natural enzymes, essential fatty acids and other nutrients such as vitamin content. A diet high in processed food items can cause a number of diseases including obesity, high cholesterol and heart disease.

While some sugar and flavour is certainly needed to make the product tasty for kids, are so much sugar, additives & processed ingredients justified vis a vis the nutrition provided? Are this really health drinks? It’s a better idea to flavour your child’s milk with saffron, cardamom or dry fruits like almonds, cashews or raisins – natural & tasty.

As a health conscious parent, if you are trying to curb/ cut out fast food, excessive sugars & processed junk ingredients from your child’s diet, then these health drinks could be more detrimental than beneficial… And now these companies are even targeting women or adults with special ‘health’ drinks … aren’t you and I better off eating a normal diet that overdosing on sugars, additives or highly processed ingredients?

References:
http://rajganpath.com/2011/11/02/the-truth-behind-health-drinks/
http://www.askdrsears.com/topics/family-nutrition/sugar/harmful-effects-...
http://www.livestrong.com/article/430630-processed-food-ingredients