Sweet vindication

Scooter drinks more juice than he is "supposed" to. We once almost got into a fight about this with one of his pediatricians. She sternly told us that it didn't matter if we only gave him 100% juice, it all counted the same--not nutritious enough, too many calories, a cause of childhood obesity. And so we continued to allow our (nearly underweight) son to drink as much juice as he wanted, but now in secret and guiltily. We tried to mitigate the guilt by recognizing that he also drinks water and milk and that the juice we give him never has added sugar and is often organic. A part of me really did believe this reasoning, but I hated that pediatrician's condescension.

And then I read this today. Kids who drink 100% fruit juice are no more likely to be overweight than those who drink none. My favorite point:

In fact, children in the 2- to 3-year-old category who drank the most juice were nearly three times less likely to be overweight or at risk for overweight (sic) than children who drank no juice at all.

As well as this:

Nicklas and her colleagues also found that children who drank any amount of 100 percent juice ate less total fat, saturated fat, sodium, added sugars and added fats. Pure juice drinkers also had higher intakes of a number of key nutrients including vitamin C, potassium, magnesium, folate, vitamin B6 and iron. They also ate more whole fruits, like apples.

If I were just a little pettier, I would print out a copy of the article and send it to her. I won't go quite that far, but I will be shedding that motherly guilt when I pour my son's orange juice!