My 13 year old grandson attends a martial arts class every week.
He is very keen and although he is very young he participates with adults who all bring their bottles of Lucozade energy drinks to consume during their practice to keep up their fluids and energy levels.
As young as he is, he is very aware of the sugar content of these drinks however, he wants to fit in and felt under pressure to conform, but it bothered him. He is not alone.
There is a lot of concern among health professionals and schools at the effects of so-called energy drinks on the health and behaviour of teenage boys in particular.
These drinks can contain the caffeine equivalent of 2 cups of coffee and up to 20 teaspoons of sugar!
They are believed to be playing a significant part in the obesity crisis among young people and contribute to the growing addiction to other sugary foods in their diets. Teenage boys are particularly drawn to these types of drinks, believing they improve performance in sports or combat fatigue from poor diets and lack of sleep.
Concern is such that there have been calls from some groups to ban them from sale to under-16s.
I live on a street near to a secondary school, and every morning I see teenage boys walking to school with cans or bottles of energy drinks and packets of crisps or sweets in their hands. My grandson’s friends also bring Lucozade to school.
He however wanted an alternative drink that didn’t make him feel uncool but wasn’t chock full of unhealthy ingredients. We have persuaded him to have a recovery smoothie when he comes home after his session, but he wanted something to drink along with his water during breaks in practice that would also not set him apart too much from his mentors.
We eventually came up with Purdey’s Rejuvenate Multivitamin Fruit Drink.
Made from fruit juice, sparkling water, with Vitamin C, B vitamins, botanical extracts and no chemicals, caffeine or refined sugar, the drink also comes in a recyclable dark glass bottle which protects the contents and is better for you and the environment than single-use plastic. It provides 1 of your 5 a day and contains no artificial sweeteners.
I don’t normally recommend commercial products unless they are organic and unprocessed, but sometimes circumstances mean you need to compromise a little bit. Purdey’s was always my go-to when out and about and feeling my blood-sugar levels getting low. It was the closest I could get in the shops to a healthy drink at the time. (Long before cold-pressed juices were sold and even before I had ever heard of them!).
Another plus when our grandson asked about this is that at the moment Sainsbury’s have them on offer at £1 each, so we bought a dozen to get him through the next term’s sessions.
I thought long and hard about writing this post.
Teenagers will always do what teenagers do and above all they want to fit in. So I hope this doesn’t disappoint my regular readers looking for home-produced, unprocessed recipes and recommendations.
Copyright: Chris McGowan
I was asked if I would write a post about Golden Linseeds as I often use them in my recipes. They are the lighter coloured of the 3 versions of flax seeds – being a golden colour they are commonly known by that term.
I devised this when I was writing a post on Golden Linseeds (see 
First up is my favourite: Celery and Apple with peanut butter and a couple of Nairns gluten-free oatcakes, either plain or herb and seed, or with my version of 
seeds with Tamari. This is usually a combination of pumpkin, sunflower and sesame seeds, amd perhaps some buckwheat, which are lightly toasted under the grill – you have to keep your eye on them and keep stirring them about, nothing happens for quite a while but if you go away to do something else they will be black when you return! Don’t overbrown them, it damages the oils, keep them light. Then remove from the grill and splash Tamari over them. It will sizzle and you need to mix up the seeds quickly to coat them all before it dries up. Love the salty crunch! You can eat them on their own for a protein pick-me-up or sprinkle on stir-fries and salads.
Humous is an old standby and there is always some in our fridge. The whole family loves it, even the babies and teenagers! I love it with crudités and oatcakes. Or with a salad. Plain and simple.
Open sandwiches are always good for a more substantial snack or light lunch. These are made in my case with home-made gluten-free bread, topped with avocado and green salad, or peanut butter and banana, or even made with sliced and toasted sweet potato!
chickpea flour (
In this photo, we have banana and peanut butter, tahini topped with lightly toasted sesame seeds sprinkled with Tamari, Natex low salt yeast extract – which didn’t work too well, the flavour was fine but it melted and ran off the sweet potato when it was picked up to eat – and most ingenious of all: whole-fruit, sugar-free strawberry jam! And it was so filling, I could only eat two of them. I saved the others for later, they were fine cold as well.
Chickpeas are so good for you on so many levels: protein, calcium, iron, fibre, so many vitamins and minerals. We are used to putting them in casseroles or stews or making hummus with them, either as they are or sprouted.
This dessert is named after our 13 year old friend, Rhys, who has been visiting while his military dad is away ‘on manouevres’ (we all think he’s having a whale of a time in the sun, really).
pearsnotparsnipsdotcom 
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