Supplied by Nutra Organics
OK, so recently I went to give a talk to a group of young people at the surf club in regard to being active and nutrition. Am I nutritionist? No…but it is kinda my jam. I gave my talk about nourishing their bodies with vegan protein and getting enough vitamins and minerals for repair and recovery as well as hydration between races.
Was there a nutritionist there?…Yes, BUT the nutritionist recommended that the kids drink chocolate milk between competition races. I’ll say it again CHOCOLATE MILK – like Breaka!
I was horrified, not in the lest because both of my teenage boys were in that group. I would never recommended chocolate milk between races, ever. Especially for kids that are competitively training and racing. What about the kids with dairy allergies?
Anyway, this little ‘experience’ caused me to take a good hard look at the average chocolate milk on the market.
So, here is the spin…
Malted barley chocolate milk = 6 essential vitamins and minerals and protein provides active kids with the goodness to keep them going. Nourishing energy.
Here is the real story…
Extract of malted barley (and/or rice or wheat), is a sweet, treacly substance used as a dietary supplement for children whose diet was often deficient in vitamins and minerals. To be able to create this, barley grains are processed to extract the sugars and turn it into a sweet thick syrup. This is the main ingredient of leading branded powdered flavoured milk mixers. They mix that with milk powder, sugar and cocoa then add synthetic vitamins and minerals. Nutrition Research Australia recommends these powders as a way to boost calcium levels for kids, by adding skim milk.
AHHHH! A bit different when you break it down, hey. But still recommended by Nutrition Australia – not that we can tell why. Synthetic vitamins and minerals are much harder for the body to assimilate than there natural wholefood alternatives.
Calcium, being such an important part of growth and development, is essential to our bodies. The recommended is about 400mg of calcium. So how else could we get calcium into our children’s diets?
Here are some wholefood examples:
- 1 cup of almonds – 378mg
- 1 tbsp of sesame seeds – 80mg
- 1 cup of kale – 90mg
- 1 cup of broccoli or sugar snap peas – 40mg
- 100g bush honey yoghurt – 170mg
- 25g organic cheddar cheese – 164mg
- 2 tsp Nutra Organics Berry Choc Chunk – 314.9mg
Let me introduce a nourishing alternative…
Our Berry Choc Chunk has only 28% sugar (instead of 51% in Milo), which come from the berries and a bit of coconut sugar. We use coconut sugar because of the minerals including iron, zinc, calcium and potassium, along with some short chain fatty acids, polyphenols and antioxidants that may also provide some health benefits.
