How to select the best health drink for kids – Nutrients to look for
Ensuring that their children stay healthy is the primary concern for any parent. However, it might be difficult for you to make sure that your child consumes their daily intake of vitamins, owing to your stress-filled and busy schedule. Which is why it is important to ensure that you provide them with a nurturing diet, along with the best health protein powder for child in India to avoid health issues arising out of nutritional deficiencies.
The nutritional requirements of children are similar to that of adults, but with varying degrees of dosage. Nutrients like iron, manganese, and zinc are essential to support the growth and development of their bodies from the early stages of childhood.
While including health drinks as a part of a healthy balanced diet is a good place to start providing your child with the nutrition that they require, it can be a difficult task to select one that meets your child’s nutritional requirements.
Let us understand more about the concept of health drinks and how you can supplement your child’s diet with the best health drink for kids for best benefits.
Benefits of Consuming Health Drinks
Health drinks are a combination of essential nutrients such as proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, electrolytes, etc that are designed to fulfil and regulate your daily nutritional intake in one go. Supplementing your child’s daily diet with the best health drink for kids can be beneficial to their health in a lot of ways, such as :
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- Improved Digestion: The fibre content of health drinks ensures smooth digestion of food and prevents constipation while contributing to overall health.
- Growth and Development: Health drinks are a rich source of protein, which helps in aiding bone growth, muscle development, and repair of tissues.
- Strengthens immune system: Health drinks contain a good amount of probiotics and multivitamins which help in reducing inflammation and warding off toxins, developing a strong immune system for your child.
- Fights Stress: Growing kids are prone to a lot of stress and anxiety due to various reasons. The magnesium present in health drinks helps deal with the stress by putting the brain in a sense of calm and focus.
- Brain Power: Health drinks contain a wide range of multivitamins – the consumption of which has been linked to an increased capacity of learning, better memory power and overall cognitive development in children.
Things To Look Out For While Buying A Health Drink
Health drinks are designed to come in a wide variety of flavours, colours and packaging in order to be appealing to kids – which is why it is important to determine which of these health drinks are actually beneficial to your child.
Here are a few things that you must consider while purchasing the best health drink for kids : Nutrients:
There are certain nutrients and vitamins that are essential for your child’s growth and development – both physical and mental. Always ensure that the best health drink for kids you purchase contains these essential nutrients :
- Vitamin A: Children require vitamin A in order to ensure functions like proper growth and development of bones, boosts tissue repair, and proper eye health. Lack of Vitamin A can lead to complications such as night blindness and bacterial infections
- Vitamin B: Vitamin B consists of nutrients like B6, B12 etc that help in boosting metabolic activity and regulating energy levels. Lack of Vitamin B can cause disruptions in the nervous and circulatory system, often leading to an increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s or dementia.
- Vitamin C: Vitamin C is one of the most important nutrients for children as it is essential for the development of muscles and the improvement of connective tissues such as skin. Lack of vitamin C has been known to cause scurvy, a condition characterized by weakness and gum bleeding.
- Vitamin D: Children require Vitamin D to support the proper formation of bones and teeth. Lack of vitamin D, especially among children can cause rickets, a complication characterised by the deformation of bones.
- Omega 3 Fatty Acids: These are a group of polyunsaturated fatty acids that are beneficial for maintaining good ocular health and lowering bad cholesterol levels.
- Amino Acids: Amino acids are a group of organic compounds that combine in order to be synthesized as proteins. The body uses these proteins to help repair muscle tissue, aid bone growth and break down food. Lack of amino acids can cause complications such as a weakened immune system and stunted growth.
Gritzo SuperMilk – is the best protein powder for child in India as it contains a vast amount of nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, and electrolytes that can help promote your child’s growth and development.
Other Precautions
Aside from ensuring nutritional content, there are a few other precautions that you must take while looking for the best health drink for kids, such as :
- Always make sure to check the sugar content of the health drink that you purchase. Excess sugar intake is counterproductive to your child’s growth and can lead to complications such as diabetes and blurred vision.
- Give your preference to organic health powders as they are a purer source of ingredients, which is additionally beneficial for the development of your child.
- Make sure to select health drinks that have as less artificial flavouring as possible.
- There are various types of health drinks in the market that are designed specifically for different age groups, which is why you must always make sure to read the packaging description of the health drink you’re purchasing.
One must note that these health drinks could never possibly replace actual meals, and are only meant to bridge the nutrient gap that is experienced in most children. The best way to ensure that your child meets their daily nutritional requirements would be to constitute a healthy balanced diet where they consume various sources of these essential vitamins – and supplement it with the best health drink for kids so that they can get the most out of their food.