Don't Shoot The Fruit

This is a holding page and image for a blog piece I am going to write today:

So I have always avoided Fruit Shoot like the plague even pre-motherhood.

Even when Aaron was too young to drink it, I wrote about it.  It's one of the posts I am most proud of but sadly not one of the most read (it has had 629 page views though).  When I published it, I thought if one person stops drinking it thanks to me, I will be made up, and they did. It was Inside the Wendy House.

Anyway fast forward, and Aaron and I were at soft play on Friday. We go to these places in various guises really really often, and I have never had the great Fruit Shoot debate with Aaron as it's just not cropped up.  BUT a year ago my Sister-in-Law bought him one and it was snatched out of his hand - by me - and replaced with something else before he knew what was going on.  Anyway the less said about that the better, as it turned out to be their healthier *coughs* My-5 (real juice with a splash of water) range and did not have aspartame in it (in fact it doesn't seem to have any dodginess in it), so I had something that look's white on the outside and yellow in the middle on my face.  THAT soft play area is frequented by the sort of parents who demand better.

But sadly not so with my more local one:

Well, moving swiftly on, this Friday at soft play Aaron's friend had one of the Orange Low Sugar Fruit Shoots you see photographed above - photos on this blog tend to be my own.

Aaron insisted on having one, and I gave in, but I was fuming.  My friend didn't understand and said "well it's only the once".  I read the ingredients and imagine my confusion when the monster word ASPARTAME was NOT there.  I knew it wasn't a My-5, I was wise to that, as I explain above.  What's this? A trick by Robinsons to remove the word they know causes offence? So that parents who know A BIT will see the absence of THAT word and buy it?

Instead the ingredients read as follows:

Ingredients: Water, Orange Juice from Concentrate (8%), Citric Acid, Acidity Regulator (Sodium Citrate), Natural Flavouring, Preservatives (Potassium Sorbate, Dimethyl Dicarbonate), Antioxidant (Ascorbic Acid), Sweeteners (Acesulfame K, Sucralose), Stabiliser (Xanthan Gum), Natural Colour (Carotenes).

OH AND....... Aaron was NOT at all himself after drinking it Friday.  On the way home from soft play he had a headache (imagine at 3 years old) and threw THE worst tantrum he has ever thrown.  So bad that as we cut across a park, I sat his bum on the grass and walked off.  I only did so as my best mate was with me and I knew she'd pick up the pieces but suffice to say he will NOT be drinking it again!

I will now be investigating: Acesulfame.....

And will update this post some more once I have done so 

So the first port of call as usual is Wikipedia.

Reading this: Fruit Shoot recovers market share, makes me want to know WHY they had a recall..... more digging around ensues 

this post is TBC (to be completed)

The Mad House of Cats and Babies has already blogged about Fruit Shoots 

Faded Seaside Mama has written a great post called Sweet Like Sugar and I agree with her that sweeteners are way more harmful than sugar itself, hence me writing this post.