So, why would you want to make your own anyway? Surely it's less time and effort to just pop to Makro and buy one of the big bags of bulk popsicles that the kids can just grab when they want? Well, if you've read ANY of my blogs you'll know exactly how I feel about convenience foods, especially when it comes to kids. I don't think kids should have access to just any old "food". They don't know enough about their bodies yet. It's up to us to teach them.
Have you seen what goes into conventional, store bought popsicles? Here is a list of ingredients from a well known brand that claim to be "fat-free" and full of vitamin c and fruit juice:
- Pear juice (from concentrate) - Fruit juice from concentrate usually means it's been heat treated and filled with chemicals to preserve it because fruit, as we all know, doesn't have a very long shelf life and if they are going to keep up with demand, they need to make sure it's going to last. So I wouldn't place a lot of confidence in that juice to be full of nutrition.
- Liquid sugar (sugar and water) - Do your kids really need MORE sugar when there is already fruit juice concentrate which is, as the word suggests, sweeter, because it's concentrated.
- High fructore corn syrup - Yet MORE sugar, but in a very evil form. Words cannot describe how bad this stuff is for you. Sugar, as you should know, leads to obesity and disease. Sugar is the perfect playground for everything from the common cold right through to cancer. High fructose corn syrup is also an industrial product. It's nowhere near natural. Fructose goes right to the liver, triggering lipogenesis (the production of fats like triglycerides and cholesterol). It's the main cause of liver damage and leads to a condition called "fatty liver," which affects 70 million people. Eat a lot of this stuff and it will literally punch holes in your intestinal lining, allowing nasty byproducts of toxic intestine bacteria and partially digested food proteins to enter your blood stream and trigger the inflammation that we know is at the root of obesity, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, dementia and accelerated aging. It is known to contain chemicals and contaminants like mercury. Read my blog on mercury fillings in your teeth to see how bad that stuff is for you. There is so much more but it would take a whole blog. Perhaps I'll save that for next week!
- Corn syrup (in case we didn't get enough corn syrup yet!)
- Citric acid - When its naturally occurring, it's fine. Trust me when I say this one isn't. When it's synthetic, citric acid, used as a preservative it's definitely not fine, especially for kids with asthma. It is the preservative used in most sweet and fizzy drinks and, if held in your mouth for long enough, will melt your teeth! Not something you want near your kids teeth...
- Guar gum - this is a thickening agent. In fact, it can swell up to 20 times the size of the original dose. If too much is consumed it can swell and block your intestinal tract and also prevent your body from absorbing necessary vitamins and minerals. Guar gum also gives you an increased risk of colon cancer.
- Malic acid - this is used in about 50 different COSMETIC formulations... in rats, it leads to weight gain and skin irritations. (any of your kids suffering with eczema?!) They are putting it in "edible" popsicles because...?!
- Modified cellulose - this doesn't seem to have too many downsides except that our bodies can't digest it so it can cause a laxative effect. I'd be wary of anything that says "modified" though.
- Artificial flavours - These are toxic. They are all synthetic, even when they say natural flavours and that can be very misleading. They are all made in a science lab and their safety has not been proven. Most artificial flavourants are petroleum based. Do you really need to know more than that?!
- Locust Bean Gum (?!) - As weird as it sounds, locust bean gum seems to be okay and it's not made from actual locusts;)
- Ascorbic acid - this is a synthetic form of vitamin c and unfortunately is not actually bio-available to our bodies. If you are taking ascorbic acid supplements and think you are actually taking vitamin c, think again. Adding it to the popsicle actually adds no benefit so telling you it contains vitamin c is purely a marketing ploy on their part. GASP?! They would actually bend the truth like that?! I'm shocked...
- Red 40 and Blue 1 - Artificial colourants, like artificial flavourants, are also toxic and should be avoided at all costs. They are all linked to one or other type of cancer, they cause allergic reactions (again I'll say, is your kid suffering from eczema?) Read this to check out the different codes and what they can do to you.
Just FYI, fruit is naturally fat-free, so in case you thought they'd actually taken your waistline into account, and that they give a damn, they didn't, and they don't. Sugar, on the other hand, is VERY fattening so, while it may not contain fat, it WILL make you very fat as well as cause a myriad of other problems for you.
If you are still allowing your kids to eat these things knowing about all of this stuff, hang your head in shame! Seriously though, I know how life gets busy and it's easy to go for convenience. However, is it really convenient when your child is sick EVERY week? Wouldn't it be better knowing you are paving the way to a long, healthy life for your kids by giving them all the good ammunition that you can? Read this to find out just how much we affect our lives when we are bombarded with chemicals on a daily basis, starting in the womb.
SO!
It is so freaking EASY to make your own popsicles! You have no excuse for not doing it once you have read this blog. As I said in the beginning, I have modified a few recipes to make my own. Firstly, while I think fruit is better than any other sweet you are going to find, it is still laden with sugar and should be eaten in moderation and not eaten alone. If you are going to give your kids a popsicle loaded with fruit alone, they will still get a sugar rush and a crash a bit later. A way to avoid that is to make sure that there is protein and fat in that popsicle to balance out the popsicle and actually turn it into a proper snack that will sustain your kids for an hour at least, without the crash. The protein and fat make sure the fruit is absorbed nice and slowly into their bodies they won't have a sugar spike or a crash. I can hear the collective, "EH?!!?" No I don't mean adding a pork sausage and some butter;) Yogurt will take care of those requirements easily!
Make sure that you use organic fruits and yogurt for these to make them REALLY nutritional and chemical free. Woolies sells organic yogurt and you'll find some organic fruits there as well. The rest you'll find at local farmer's markets.
Fruity yogurt popsicles - Makes about 6
You will need:
A blender
Popsicle sticks
Popsicle moulds
A mix of fruits. This is up to you. I'm going with:
1/2 cup strawberries
2 bananas
1/4 pineapple
1 nectarine
1/2 orange
3 Tbs Plain full fat yogurt
1 Tbs raw honey (this is optional as it will already be quite sweet. Try it once, if it's not needed, then leave it out in future)
Method
- Peel, core and de-seed any fruits that need it so you're just left with the soft bits
- Throw everything into a blender
- Blend on high speed until liquid
- Pour mixture into popsicle moulds
- After about 30-40mins, go back and push popsicle sticks in (you'll know if they're frozen enough)
- Allow to freeze for 3-4 hours
- To get them out of them moulds run them under luke warm water briefly and simply pull out
Don't let the fact that you can't find popsicle moulds put you off! (Although Westpack at the Lifestyle centre will undoubtedly have them!) Ice trays will work perfectly fine as well. They'll be small, but satisfying. Instead of buying popsicle sticks you can use straws, chopsticks (how many do YOU have lying around from sushi takeaways, because we have a lot!), toothpicks with the pointy end cut off to avoid injury or even teaspoons will also work. There's no need to go out and buy stuff if you don't want to. If you do buy all the moulds and sticks, be sure to wash and re-use them! It definitely won't harm you, it'll save you money and hey, the less we add to the environment, the better!
That's it! It looks like we're heading for a weekend where popsicles will be the order of the day!
Enjoy:)
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