After they’ve spent the morning playing in the park or dancing in the living room, there’s nothing more delicious and thirst-quenching for your child than fresh juice! From apple to orange, cranberry to mango, children and adults love the sweet and refreshing taste of fruity drinks. But with so many to choose from, and almost all claiming to be vitamin-packed and nutrient-rich, which should you and your child go for?

First of all, it’s important that we understand the differences between juices, juice drinks and fruit drinks and learn how to spot them.

So what is juice?

A drink can only be labelled juice if it contains 100% fruit or vegetable juice within the UK. The name of the fruits from where the juice comes should also be apparent on the cover. It must contain only the juice squeezed from tasty fruit and/or vegetables, and hold no added sugars. For example a carton of 'orange juice' must come from 100% orange and not have any added water or sugar. Pure juice, freshly squeezed or pressed, is packed with vitamins and flavour. However, most juice is “from concentrate” (dehydrated for processing, with water added back into the mix later), which loses flavour and nutrients through processing.

What about juice drinks?

If the juice of a fruit or vegetable has been diluted in any way, the drink will be named something other than ‘juice’, such as ‘juice cocktail’ or ‘juice beverage’. To spot these juice drinks, look at the label and packaging. Somewhere on the bottle or carton, you should come across the ingredients list, where the fruit and the percentage of juice must be declared. If these drinks use real fruit juice in smaller quantities, the label usually states that the drink is flavoured by a fruit, such as ‘with real apple flavouring’. Some juice drinks still contain 100% of the calories and nutrients found in real juice but have some added sugars for sweetness.

What about fruit drinks?

Put simply, a fruit drink is merely flavoured water. They are sometimes fortified with vitamin C and other nutrients or contain small amounts of concentrated juice (juice from which the water has been extracted) for flavouring, but generally also contain a lot of added sugars. The packaging of fruit drinks can be deceiving, so when buying, be sure to check the ingredients and be prepared to read through the lines.

Comparing juices, juice drinks and fruit drinks

100% fruit juices are packed with nutrients, including vitamins A and C, magnesium, folate and much more. But do they always contain more nutrients than juice drinks?

Not necessarily. The nutrient levels in juices and juice drinks depend on the type of fruit or vegetable used, as some fruits and vegetables simply contain more nutrients than others. For example, orange juice has a much higher percentage of vitamin C than apple juice. Sometimes juice drinks are fortified with vitamins and nutrients, increasing their vitamin content so that it exceeds that of regular juice.

However, while all three drinks contain mostly water that offers hydration, generally and nutritionally speaking, a fruit drink or juice drink can not be substituted for 100% juice. Although drinking moderate amounts of juice is not believed to significantly impact weight in children or adults, as with all food and drink, don’t let your little one overdo it, as all juices contain calories and natural sugars. In excess, these sugars will prove bad for your little one’s teeth, and with this in mind, high-sugar fruit drinks are best left on the supermarket shelf.

Juicing at home

If you’re making juices at home with your kids, try using a blender instead of buying an expensive juicer. This ensures that the fruit and veg maintain as much of their nutrients as possible, as the fibre in fruit and veg is found in the fruit’s pulp or edible peel, and juicers remove these fibre-heavy elements. If your kids don’t like the texture of fruit pulp, save it and use it in cake batter or a delicious soup.

Can my child get their fruit and vegetables through fruit and vegetables juices?

Whilst fruit juice is made from 100% of the fruit the process of turning this into juice means a lot of the fibre content of the fruit is lost and this process also increases the sugar of the fruit. So although 1 small glass of juice does contribute towards your little ones '5 a day' , it is not advised to aim for more than this, especially as the higher sugar content can be damaging to teeth.

One tip might be to offer fruit juice straight after your toddler’s meals, such as a glass of orange juice which is packed with vitamin C and can help absorb the iron from their meal.

Top Tip: If you're attempting a nourishing vegetable drink, add a little fruit juice for a touch of sweetness.

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