A great deal of children get their fruit servings from juice. While 100% juice is good and full of vitamins, the problem is there is a lot of sugar. And your child could be getting the same servings with so much less calories.

I know. Can’t we just be happy that they are getting fruit in their diet. Yes….and No. Sugar is just lurking in those juices and you might be surprised if you read the label. Combine that with the sugar they are probably getting from the cereal, and well, you wouldn’t give them candy for breakfast. But guess what, combining the sugar from cereal and juice and they are getting as much as they would if you gave them candy.

Here is a way to move your child from drinking their fruit to eating their fruit.

• First, be patient, change takes time.
• Limit the juice, pour the small glass and put the juice back in the fridge. Out of sight, out of mind.
• Start diluting the juice with some water. You will be surprised how sweet the juice will taste after a week.
• Put cut up, peeled fruit, bite size on table for them to snack on
• Less juice, more fresh fruit options

UCLA did a study and reported the top ten healthiest juices. After all, not all juice is created equal.

So here they are in order of healthiest:
1. Pomegranate juice
2. Red Wine (okay, this is NOT one for the kids)
3. Concord grape juice
4. Blueberry juice
5. Black cherry juice
6. Acai juice
7. Cranberry juice
8. Orange juice
9. Tea
10. Apple juice

So what makes pomegranate juice the best juice? Well according to the study, they took into account the vitamins and antioxidant levels (click here to get the definition), and pomegranate has the most different types of antioxidants to fight off cancer such as prostate cancer and heart disease.

As a good general rule, the more color, the more antioxidants it will have. So berries are another great fruit.