3 Healthy Drink Recipes for Children
Preparing healthy drink recipes for children can be important to increase variety in their diet and maintain a good state of hydration. This is especially important in the summer when there’s a greater loss of fluids through sweating, which must be compensated for.
Before we begin, we’d like to point out that the best tool for maintaining water balance is natural mineral water. Even so, it can be complemented with other preparations such as those detailed below.
1. Gazpacho
Ingredients
- 2 ripe tomatoes
- 1 garlic clove
- 1/2 bell pepper
- 1 cucumber (optional)
Step-by-step instructions
- Put all the ingredients in a blender.
- Blend until you get a mixture with the desired texture.
- Add water if necessary.
Why make this healthy drink recipe for your kids?
Although it also works as a food, it’s a drink that improves hydration thanks to its high water content. To this, we must add the contribution of phytochemicals with antioxidant capacity that are present in vegetables.
These elements neutralize the formation of free radicals and their subsequent accumulation in the body’s tissues. We’re talking about an effect that has been shown to help prevent the development of complex diseases.
However, to achieve an excellent gazpacho, it’s important to use fresh vegetables and avoid the use of bread in the recipe.
2. Fresh orange juice
Ingredients
- 3 oranges
- Sweetener (optional)
- 1 lemon (optional)
Step-by-step instructions
- Squeeze the oranges.
- Pour the juice into a glass without throwing out the pulp.
- Sweeten with stevia or another sweetener, if necessary.
- Add a few drops of lemon juice.
Why make this recipe?
Fresh orange juice is a good source of vitamin C. According to a study published in the journal Nutrients, this substance helps to improve the functioning of the immune system and prevents infectious diseases. It’s even easier to manage symptoms in the case of illness when the level of the vitamin in the body is adequate.
However, it’s important to note that natural juice contains simple sugars. For this reason, the addition of sweeteners shouldn’t be abused.
3. Fruit smoothie with milk
Ingredients
- 7 ounces of strawberries
- 1 banana
- 8.5 ounces of milk
Step-by-step instructions
- Put the ingredients in the blender.
- Blend until a homogeneous texture is obtained.
- Store in the refrigerator or freezer for a few minutes.
- Serve and enjoy!
Why make this recipe?
We couldn’t exclude cow’s milk from this list, as it’s a drink with high nutritional density. It provides proteins of high biological value, with all the essential amino acids, and it has a good digestibility score.
Of course, milk should always be consumed whole. On the contrary, when the fat is removed, many important fat-soluble vitamins are lost, so its quality decreases quite a bit.
Include healthy drink recipes in your children’s diet
As you’ve seen, there are different alternatives to prepare healthy drinks for children and thus improve the variety of the diet. In any case, priority should always be given to the consumption of natural mineral water to quench thirst. All these options we’ve mentioned are mere complements.
Finally, it’s important to keep in mind that during the summer season, fluid and electrolyte requirements may be increased.
All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
- Neha, K., Haider, M. R., Pathak, A., & Yar, M. S. (2019). Medicinal prospects of antioxidants: A review. European journal of medicinal chemistry, 178, 687–704. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejmech.2019.06.010
- Carr, A. C., & Maggini, S. (2017). Vitamin C and Immune Function. Nutrients, 9(11), 1211. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu9111211
