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‘Please Mum, I’m thirsty, can I have a drink?’ is a cry mothers are all too familiar with and it’s true that children do need plenty of liquids to stop them becoming dehydrated. Due to their low body weight, children are more vulnerable than adults to the effects of dehydration and this can cause not just tiredness, headaches and mood swings but make it difficult for them to concentrate too. It can also prevent the digestive system from working efficiently as bowels need plenty of fluid to avoid constipation.

KEEPING YOUR KIDS HEALTHY

Fresh juices and smoothies contain lots of nutrients to help keep children healthy and are a useful way of ensuring that picky eaters, who normally turn their noses up at fruit and vegetables, add to their recommended daily allowance.

Fruit and vegetable juices are an excellent source of vitamins, particularly vitamin C. This valuable vitamin helps children absorb iron from their food and build up their immune systems to protect them against bacteria and viruses. The recommended daily allowances of vitamin C vary slightly from country to country but the following can be taken as a guide:

* 25 mg for 4 to 8 year olds

* 45 mg for 9 to 13 year olds

* For 14 to 18 year olds, 75 mg is the recommended daily allowance for boys and 65 mg for girls.

The recommended daily allowances for adults are 75 mg for women and 90 mg for men. As a 250-ml (9 fl-oz) glass of freshly squeezed orange juice contains around 120 mg of vitamin C, it’s easy to see just how valuable a contribution a juice can make to a healthy, balanced diet.

Smoothies, where fruit or vegetables are puréed with milk or yoghurt, can also play an important part in keeping your kids healthy. Milk, the ultimate superfood, is packed with a range of nutrients including calcium, protein, zinc, iodine and vitamins A and B and, as whole fruit are used to make smoothies, the resulting drinks also contain dietary fibre. Calcium is essential for strong teeth and bones, whilst protein repairs body tissues like muscles and zinc boosts the immune system. Iodine is needed to help the body convert food to energy, vitamin A is important for good eyesight, vitamin B for healthy growth, and dietary fibre keeps the body regular.

Yoghurt is low in fat, high in calcium and good for the digestive tract but it’s best to opt for natural yoghurt that contains probiotic bacteria and sweeten it yourself with a little honey, if necessary, rather than buy a flavoured yoghurt that can contain large amounts of sugar or artificial sweeteners. Although skimmed milk should not be given to children under five years old, after that age low-fat yoghurt and skimmed or semi-skimmed milk can be used to make drinks.

When sweetening juices, honey is a better choice than sugar as honey increases the level of protective antioxidants in the blood and softens sharper juices with its own warm, rounded flavour. Maple syrup is another natural sweetener that, amongst a range of health benefits, contains zinc and manganese to help the immune system.

What are the best drinks for children?

Whilst persuading children to have a drink is rarely a problem, the difficult part can be steering them away from heavily sweetened juice drinks, squashes and fizzy pop in favour of a healthier option. Children have a naturally sweet tooth and many consume too much sugar from fizzy drinks that are high in additives and low in nutrients and can lead to a variety of problems such as hyperactivity, weight gain and tooth decay. A single can of ordinary cola contains an eye-watering 10 teaspoons of sugar, so as well as being nutritionally poor value, it’s high in calories too.

The two healthiest drinks for kids are without question plain water and milk, and all children should be encouraged to consume plenty of both. But, like adults, children thrive on variety so including healthy options such as homemade fruit juices and smoothies will not only add interest to what they drink but increase the amount of fresh fruit and vegetables in their diet.

Can my children get all their recommended daily portions of fruit and vegetables from juices and smoothies?

When juice is extracted from a fruit or vegetable, the fibre content is greatly reduced so the nutritional benefit is less than if you were to eat the whole fruit. For this reason a 150 ml (¼ pt) glass of juice counts as only one of the five recommended daily portions, however many different kinds of fruit and vegetables are used to make it. Juice can also only count as one portion a day, regardless of how many glasses are drunk, as the nutritional benefits from juice are lower than those from whole fruit and vegetables. It must also be 100% pure juice or juice from concentrate, as squashes and ‘juice drinks’ contain added water and sugar so cannot be counted.

Smoothies, on the other hand, are made by crushing whole fruit or vegetables with juice, so they contain higher levels of carbohydrate, fibre, energy, sugars and vitamin C than pure juices. A 250 ml (9 fl oz) glass of smoothie made with 150 ml (¼ pt) fruit juice and 80 g (3 oz) fruit is equal to two portions of the RDA.

Can I only use fresh fruit to make juices?

Frozen, canned, bottled and reconstituted dried fruit, as well as fresh, can all be used, enabling you to make a wide variety of juices even when your kids’ favourite fruits are out of season. When making drinks using canned or bottled fruit, choose those canned in fruit juice rather than syrup to avoid the extra sugar. The juice from the can or bottle can also be added to the drink for extra flavour.

Which vegetables are most suitable for juices?

Naturally sweet vegetables that are popular with children, such as carrots and cucumber, are particularly good, as are other vegetables like spinach and beetroot that are not usually junior crowd-pleasers. Juicing vegetables with fruit not only helps mask their flavour – beetroot in particular can taste rather earthy on its own – it can also produce spectacularly coloured drinks, such as bright orange when carrots are added or a rich purple with beetroot.

I prefer not to add sugar to my kids’ drinks but will they complain they’re not sweet enough?

Although individual tastes vary, the juice recipes in this book should be sweet enough without the necessity to add extra sugar. All fruit and vegetable juices, whether they’re ones you’ve made yourself or bought ready made, tend to be sweeter than the individual ingredients used to make them as natural sugars in the fruit and vegetables become concentrated when their juice is extracted.

Some fruits such as pears, mangoes and strawberries are naturally very sweet so, when using these to make a drink, it’s worth combining them with sharper flavours such as citrus fruits to ensure a good balance. Taste the finished juice and if you feel your children will complain that it’s too sharp, add a little runny honey or maple syrup to sweeten it if necessary. Alternatively, you can just change the balance of ingredients in a recipe by cutting down the quantity of citrus or leaving it out altogether. If you do add honey or maple syrup to a juice, it’s important to do this just before serving as the longer a juice is left to stand the more its flavours – including its natural sweetness – will develop.

Older children and teenagers are likely to have more sophisticated palates than their younger siblings so a particularly sweet juice may need sharpening with the addition of a squeeze of fresh lemon or lime juice to suit their taste.

Are juices suitable for children of all ages?

The recipes in this book are aimed at children aged between four and 16 years old, although hopefully they will appeal to the grown-up members of the family just as much. It is recommended that juices should not be given to babies under six months old and the amount of juice given to young children should always be carefully monitored to avoid them filling themselves up with smoothies and fresh fruit drinks and leaving no room for lunch or supper!

Although good for kids – juices contain valuable minerals and vitamins, and milk or yoghurt-based smoothies contain calcium – most of the calories in fruit juices come from sugars and carbohydrates rather than protein or fat, so over-indulgence risks a child’s diet becoming unbalanced. The sugar and acid in fruit juices can also damage tooth enamel if large quantities are drunk between meals. For this reason it’s a good idea to dilute juices with water for younger children and make sure they brush their teeth before bedtime.

What equipment do I need to make juices and smoothies?

There’s no need to buy a special juice extractor as all the recipes in this book can be made using either a liquidizer or food processor. However, if you do own a juice extractor, this can be used to make the orange, apple, pineapple, grapefruit and other juices that are blended with the whole fruit and vegetables in the recipes, rather than buying ready made ones.

Citrus fruit juices can be made using a simple old-fashioned lemon squeezer or manual press but if you do put oranges and grapefruit through a juice extractor cut away the outer layer of rind first using a sharp knife, peeler or zester, as it will give the drink a bitter taste if left on. The pith doesn’t need removing as it contains valuable nutrients and won’t taint the flavour of the juice.

When putting fruit or vegetables through a juice extractor, it’s not necessary to peel them first or remove cores and pips, unless the skin, stalks or stones are very coarse and hard. As many of the nutrients found in fruit and vegetables are just under the skin, the resulting juices will be healthier. However, all produce, whether organic or non-organic, must first be washed thoroughly in running water.

When using a liquidizer or food processor, fruit and vegetables need to be peeled first and the pips, cores, seeds and stalks removed. It is particularly important to remove the seeds from tomatoes, as well as the skin, as if these are blitzed with the rest of the pulp, they will give the juice a bitter taste.

When whole fruit and vegetables are blended with juice, milk or yoghurt in a liquidizer or food processor, the resulting drinks are thicker than those made using a juice extractor. Some very pulpy ones will also thicken up on standing so might need letting down with water, milk or extra fruit or vegetable juice to dilute the drink to the desired consistency.

Do I need to strain juices before serving?

This is very much down to personal taste. Although pips and stones can be removed from most fruits, it’s not possible to do this with soft fruits such as raspberries and blackberries. If your kids don’t like drinks ‘with bits in’, strain juices containing these fruits before pouring them into glasses or simmer the fruit first with a little water or fruit juice until it becomes pulpy and can be pushed through a sieve to remove the seeds.

Similarly, whilst it’s easy to skin peaches, plums and tomatoes, it’s not practical with small fruits like cherries, grapes and blueberries. When blended, the skins of these fruits won’t break down completely but will remain in the juice as finely chopped flecks so, once again, strain the juice before drinking if preferred.

Should I only make juices from fruit and vegetables that are ripe and blemish-free?

Don’t buy produce that’s past its best as the nutrient levels and juice content of fruit and vegetables diminishes with age. They need to be ripe, as they will have a greater concentration of antioxidants, but still firm and fruit should smell fragrant and sweet.

If you grow your own fruit and freeze the excess to use throughout the year, freeze it as soon as you can after picking to preserve as many of the nutrients as possible.

How far ahead can I make juices?

Most juices and smoothies are best drunk freshly made as the longer they’re kept the more vitamins they lose. Once exposed to the air, juices begin to oxidise and those containing apples and bananas can discolour and start to turn brown. Citrus flavours also become more pronounced and dominate other, more delicate, fruits.

However, although it’s a good idea to give kids a juice or smoothie at breakfast time since they contain so many valuable nutrients, most weekday mornings in family homes are rushed affairs with everyone late for school or work. If preparing a fresh juice is one job too many, it’s fine to make it the night before and keep the juice in a covered container in the fridge. If a juice left to stand has separated, give it a good stir up before pouring into glasses.

Some juices have an awful lot of froth. How can I get rid of this as my kids don’t like it?

Some fruits, such as apples and pears, are notorious for producing juices with thick, frothy heads and the simplest way to remove or reduce this is by skimming it off with a spoon or by spraying the froth with a fine mist of cold water to help it settle.

If you have a juice extractor, this will probably have been supplied with a juice-collecting jug complete with a built-in froth separator that acts as a lid and will do the job for you. This specially designed lid traps the froth in the jug as the juice is poured out. Alternatively, you can simply serve a frothy drink with a straw so the juice is sucked from the bottom of the glass, leaving the froth behind.

Are there any other special juicing tips I should know?

With fruits that contain lots of juice, such as oranges or grapefruit, it’s a good idea to prepare them on a plate – or straight over the bowl of a food processor or liquidizer goblet – so any juice that drips out isn’t lost.

When liquidizing whole fruit with juice, milk or yoghurt, a smooth mixture is easier to obtain if you add the liquid in several batches to the liquidizer or food processor. Pulse the mixture in small bursts after each addition, stopping to push any pulp down the sides of the bowl as necessary.

My kids love ice lollies, crushes and slushies. Are there any special tips for making these?

When making ice lollies from fruit juice, it’s worth remembering that as the juice freezes it will expand so don’t fill the moulds quite to the top. The lollies then need to be left in the freezer until they are still just soft enough for the sticks to be pushed in but sufficiently solid to prevent the sticks floating to the surface.

As the flavour and sweetness of fruit diminishes when it’s frozen, ice lollies made with subtly flavoured fruits benefit from being sweetened with a little honey. Full-flavoured fruits such as mangoes, oranges or summer berries are fine on their own but add honey if they are blended with unsweetened natural yoghurt or fromage frais to counteract any tartness.

To remove frozen lollies that are sticking stubbornly to their moulds, dip each mould in a bowl of hot water for a few seconds to loosen the lollies sufficiently for them to be lifted out. Avoid tugging on the lolly stick as you could pull this out and leave the lolly behind!

If you have an ice cream or sorbet machine, this can be used to make crushes. It also means you don’t have to keep an eye on the half-frozen mixture and remove it from the freezer to break up ice crystals.

Whilst slushies can be made using either a food processor or liquidizer, those made in a food processor will have a stronger flavour as the fruit needs little or no liquid added to it to reduce it to pulp, whereas liquid is needed to crush fruit in a liquidizer. The recipes for slushies in this book include the quantities of liquid required to do that but if using a food processor the liquid can be reduced to a couple of tablespoonfuls or omitted altogether.

Our family diet doesn’t include dairy products, what can I use instead of milk and yoghurt?

Soya milk and yoghurt can replace cow’s milk and yoghurt in the recipes. As soya is enriched with calcium and is high in isoflavones, the antioxidants believed to protect the walls of arteries from potential damage caused by harmful chemicals called free radicals, it makes a healthy alternative to dairy products.

Can children have juices before bedtime?

It’s best to give children milky drinks directly before bedtime and to avoid any juice with a high acid content as this can soften their tooth enamel. As the acid in a fruit juice remains on the teeth for about half an hour to an hour before it disperses, any brushing during this time could cause permanent damage to a child’s teeth.

Most of the recipes in the Bedtime Soothers (pages 142–59) chapter of this book are milk based or contain only a small amount of fruit juice. The Blackberry, apple and plum cordial (page 151) and Lemon kiss (page 150) recipes, which contain a higher proportion of fruit, are designed to be drunk slightly earlier in the evening – ideally an hour or so before bedtime when you’re settling the kids down for some quiet time – so any acid can disperse before they brush their teeth.

ABOUT THE RECIPES

Juices and smoothies aren’t just good for your kids, they’re fun to make as well, so get them involved in helping you try out the recipes in this book and then encourage them to start creating their own.

The quantities given for each recipe are approximate and will vary according to the size of fruit and vegetables used and how much juice or pulp they contain.

The thickness of drinks will depend on how large fruit and vegetables are and how much pulp they make, and if you are adding yoghurt, the type used. How thick your kids like their drinks is also down to personal preference so dilute them with extra juice, water or milk as required.