What you are about to read may unsettle you, especially if you are a parent of a child who has consumed these things. (Which is to say, almost all of us, including me.) The good news is that the incoming FDA director, Marty Makary MD, is now fully aware of this and is likely very concerned, though due to his position he cannot speak for the record now. Dr. Makary has spoken for the record about Quizzify before, though, as noted here, and here.
Further, Dr. Makary's concern is shared across the aisle. Here is the reaction of Rep. Jamie Raskin (D.-Md.) when I brought this to his attention:
"I am sure I speak for my Democratic colleagues and even many Republicans when I say I am shocked and angered that children's juice boxes can be full of added sugar and yet claim no added sugar thanks to this 2017 loophole. The FDA needs to close this loophole ASAP."
Therefore, we are confident that something will happen soon, but "soon" in the regulatory world means "in a couple of years." It's a long story but it takes a long time to change regulations, and the food industry is sure to weigh in to try to delay the fix.
For now, your only option is educating your employees with Quizzify.
Opinions differ on whether hidden added sugar in foods marketed to children reaches the threshold where it can be called “poison" (hence the quotations marks) but the fact that we even debate this nomenclature means the FDA should at least make food companies disclose the added sugar in products marketed to kids. Then parents can decide for themselves.
“Ah, but they already do disclose the added sugar,” you say. “Look at the Nutrition Facts.”
If only! There is a loophole that even the most conscientious parents are unaware of. Specifically, the FDA allows that ubiquitous children’s beverage, juice boxes, to hide virtually all the added sugar.
Let’s look at the labels of juice boxes. They very clearly say: “100% Juice. No Added Sugar.”
And then there’s the Nutrition Facts label, that says: “Includes 0g Added Sugars 0%”
By the way, 14 grams of sugar is about 3 1/2 teaspoons of sugar. Would you pour your child a glass of water with some flavoring, and then add 3 1/2 teaspoons of sugar? I didn't think so.
But, you might note, those are natural sugars. They are not "Added Sugars." Not so fast. Let’s put on our reading glasses and take a looksee at the ingredients label:
It reveals four kinds of fruit concentrates:
1. Apple juice concentrate
2. Pear juice concentrate
3. Orange juice concentrate
4. Tangerine juice concentrate
You don’t see any added sugar on the Nutrition Facts label, but fruit juice concentrates are indeed added sugars.
Let’s add a couple more morsels:
Almost very single calorie in a juice box is from added sugar. 14 grams of sugar is 56 calories out of 60. That's fine if you're drinking a soda, but if you are feeding your kids a product that boasts "No added sugar," you should be able to expect that there are, well, no added sugars, rather than 3 1/2 teaspoons' worth.
The giveaway that these are pure junk, as Quizzify customers' employees learn, is the addition of Vitamin C. For instance, check out this proposed class action against Minute Maid, citing their claim of being "good for you."
Quizzify has been down this road before. We “outed” Naked Juice three years ago for having 53 grams of concentrated fruit juice sugar despite saying: “NO SUGAR ADDED.”
“Excluded from the definition [of added sugars in juices] are sugars from certain fruit and vegetable juice concentrates."
Let's sample the top-shelf juice boxes
I thought I'd try Whole Foods, to get the real quality juice boxes, which certainly would not contain added sugar. Or would they?
The first hint that maybe "Honest" is a slight exaggeration are the claims:
No artificial sweeteners
No high-fructose corn syrup
Really, is that the best they can do, like Benjamin assuring Mrs. Robinson that she is the most attractive of all his parents' friends? Once again, Quizzify's users know better, as questions like this one teach.
Here is the ingredients label. Are you noticing a pattern?
In addition to the ubiquitous phrase "from concentrate," you may also notice the word "organic" appears...hmmm...let me see if I can count them all...five times, plus the word "natural" twice. They even appear together once: "organic natural flavors."
We debunk the word "organic" in many Quizzify questions too, like this one: https://play.quizzify.com/quiz?share=459.
(In all fairness to Honest Kids, their apple juice contains somewhat less sugar. And there is one "healthy" juice box option called Plezi. You've never heard of it for the simple reason that kids don't like the way it tastes. I wonder why...)
Do people fall for this "No Added Sugar" snooker?
It’s unlikely that companies would go through all the trouble of using fruit juice concentrate instead of sugar to proclaim "NO SUGAR ADDED" if they didn’t think people would fall for it. Let’s look at the reviews:
You might say, well maybe these two aren't the brightest lights on the tree. But here's the rub. I recently attended my grandson's preschool Thanksgiving kids' sing-along (each in their own key). Afterwards, they (the staff) served amazingly healthy snacks provided by the parents, like fruit and cut vegetables. Even their packaged snack offering, Harvest Snaps, makes the Quizzify honor roll, in this question.
Then there were the Honest Kids juice boxes. I said to my son: "I wouldn't be feeding your kids this crap." He replied that Honest Kids juice boxes were different because they don't have added sugar. And here's the thing: he has won a couple of awards for his legal acumen in reading documents closely enough to find the snookers. Yet they snookered him, which means they can snooker anyone.
In a year or two, this whole "NO ADDED SUGAR" scam should be behind us. For now, your best option is Quizzify. Actually it's your only option. Don't believe us? Look at your own wellness vendor materials and see if there is any mention of juice boxes being sugar water. And then...
