26 replies to this topic

[asbestoshills]

My parent's never had sweets in the house and I have a huge sweet tooth.  I rarely had access to candy, cookies, regular soda, and even sugar and now I can go through tons of candy and sweets.  Not so much during pregnancy though.  Everything in moderation!

Most of the kids at Starbucks are drinking a cocoa or a non-caffeinated beverage....

[bishmasterb]

If you let your children drink anything except water, they will turn into horrible, mutated, leprechaun people and will be banished from the land, and will spend their entire lives in a fruitless pursuit for a pot of gold.

[cybertrano]

I did not start to drink coffee until I started college. Nowaday, I am kinda addicted to it. I would assume it will do the same to the kiddies - get them addicted.

For my kiddies, it will be all healthy drinks and foods.

[Deb aka Resume Lady]

Well, my daughter works at a Starbucks store, and while it is true that many parents get their kids drinks without caffeine, many get their kids drinks with cffeine.

The coffee/soda comparison is a good one. Some frown at coffee drinks, while allowing their children to drink several caffeinated sodas a day.

I've never heard about caffeine stunting your growth. However, my doctor said caffeine can exponentially increase the rate of growth of a tumor if you get one. It's not that caffeine causes tumors, but should you get one, it will accelerate its growth.

Children are hyper enough without caffeine.

[cybertrano]

That's so true rlady. I have a close friend who fed his 3 young kids, aged 3 to 5, exclusively soda. I was shocked!!!! In addition to the caffeine that already do the damages, you also have the sugar.

The coffee/soda comparison is a good one. Some frown at coffee drinks, while allowing their children to drink several caffeinated sodas a day.

[nhardy]

it'll make 'em way too hyper

Nothin' a lil hit off the old whiskey bottle won't fix

[3heningers]

My Dad used to make us "kids coffee" on the weekends. A splash of coffee with lots of milk and a little sugar. We thought we were pretty cool! I dont remember drinking a lot of soda. When we are out with my two year old i always let him have the lemonade out of the fountain (half lemonade and half water). He thinks he is cool. That is the reason kids want these things, it makes them feel grown up. Just start early tricking them into thinking they are getting a treat

[uberman]

I found a pretty interesting article about caffeine/coffee, and caffeine loaded drinks:

http://kidshealth.or...n/caffeine.html

It's a drug..

Carbohydrates are the best way to start the morning, do this by eating 3-4 different types of fruits, I eat for breakfast: 1 Apple, 1 banana, 1 orange, and honeymelon. 1 Cup of 2% milk.

Get your kids to start the habit of eating breakfast EVERY morning, breakfast is the only meal of the day worth eating, it establishes your appetite and jumpstarts your metabolism. If you don't eat breakfast daily, you'll be leading your child down a path of obesity.

Caffeine does not stunt your growth...

[Farley]

When the Ink Spots sang "I love the java jive and it loves me" in 1940, they could not have known how right they were. Coffee not only helps clear the mind and perk up the energy, it also provides more healthful antioxidants than any other food or beverage in the American diet, according to a study released Sunday.

Of course, too much coffee can make people jittery and even raise cholesterol levels, so food experts stress moderation.

The findings by Joe A. Vinson, a chemistry professor at the University of Scranton, in Pennsylvania, give a healthy boost to the warming beverage.

"The point is, people are getting the most antioxidants from beverages, as opposed to what you might think," Vinson said in a telephone interview.

Antioxidants, which are thought to help battle cancer and provide other health benefits, are abundant in grains, tomatoes and many other fruits and vegetables.

Vinson said he was researching tea and cocoa and other foods and decided to study coffee, too.

His team analyzed the antioxidant content of more than 100 different food items, including vegetables, fruits, nuts, spices, oils and common beverages. They then used Agriculture Department data on typical food consumption patterns to calculate how much antioxidant each food contributes to a person's diet.

They concluded that the average adult consumes 1,299 milligrams of antioxidants daily from coffee. The closest competitor was tea at 294 milligrams. Rounding out the top five sources were bananas, 76 milligrams; dry beans, 72 milligrams; and corn, 48 milligrams. According to the Agriculture Department, the typical adult American drinks 1.64 cups of coffee daily.

That does not mean coffee is a substitute for fruit and vegetables.

http://news.yahoo.co...t_health_coffee

[uberman]

It may provide a boatload of anti-oxidants, but that's about it, coffee consists mostly of empty calories, calories in which you gain no nutritional value.

[ngilbert]

Perhaps Frank Sinatra said it best:

Way down among Brazilians
Coffee beans grow by the billions
So they've got to find those extra cups to fill.
Man they got a lot of coffee in Brazil.

Actually, since last week I've cut back to just two cups a day.

Withdrawal symptoms include quoting Frank Sinatra lyrics, but other than that I'm doing .... just.....fine