Plain Milk

• Plain pasteurized milk is recommended as part of a healthy diet for children and adolescents. Examples include plain whole, reduced fat (2%), low-fat (1%), and skim (non-fat) milk. Learn more about the different varieties of dairy milk available in the marketplace.
• Milk is a great source of key nutrients that many children and adolescents do not get enough of, such as: protein, calcium, vitamin D, and potassium.
• If a child does not like milk, other foods from the dairy group (for example yogurt or cheese) can meet daily nutrient needs. In this case, just increase the amount of water a child drinks each day to maintain good hydration.
• If a child has lactose intolerance, choose unsweetened low-lactose and lactose-free dairy products. If a child has a dairy allergy, plain unsweetened fortified plant-based milk alternatives may be a suitable option.

Sweetened Flavored Milk

• Children and adolescents should limit consumption of flavored milk with added sugars. Examples include chocolate milk and strawberry milk.
• Children and adolescents should consume no more than 6 teaspoons of added sugar per day (equivalent to 25 grams of added sugars, or 100 calories). One cup of flavored milk can meet or even exceed daily added sugar recommendations. Some lower sugar flavored milks are also sweetened with non-sugar sweeteners, which are not recommended for children and adolescents.
• To meet dairy recommendations, plain pasteurized milk is the best option. If your child does not accept the taste of plain milk, other dairy sources like unsweetened yogurt and cheese should be considered before shifting to flavored milk.

Plant-Based Milk Alternatives

• Plant-based milk alternatives are only recommended if a child is allergic to dairy or does not eat dairy products. In these cases, fortified soy milk or plant-based milk alternatives that are nutritionally similar to cow’s milk, like those made from pea proteins, are recommended in place of dairy milk.
• Plant-based milk alternatives often contain added sugars or non-sugar sweeteners that offer no nutritional benefit. These are sweetened drinks and should be avoided.
• If your child or adolescent is lactose intolerant, low-lactose or lactose-free versions of dairy products should be used as an alternative to dairy before plant-based milk alternatives.
• Plant-based milk alternatives are not necessarily an unhealthy choice. However, they are not nutritionally equivalent to regular milk, which contains key nutrients important for healthy child development. Families choosing to avoid dairy should consult with a health care provider, such as a pediatrician or a dietitian, to ensure that children get adequate amounts of the key nutrients found in milk, such as protein, calcium, vitamin D, and potassium. Plant-based milk alternatives are generally not a good source of these nutrients. Learn more about the nutrients in plant-based milk alternatives, and what parents need to know about choosing a nutritionally appropriate dairy milk alternative.

100% Juice

• 100% fruit and vegetable juice can be part of a healthy diet in children and adolescents, but consumption should be limited. Drinking a little bit of juice is ok, but the majority of fruit consumed should come from whole fruit, which contains fiber, not fruit juice.
• 100% juice means that everything in the container comes from a fruit or vegetable with no added sugars or artificial ingredients. In the store, these drinks will be labeled “100% juice.”
• Juice is not a necessary part of the diet. Kids that reach their daily fruit servings without drinking juice don’t need to include juice to meet their hydration needs. Instead, they should just drink more water.
• Exceeding the recommended amount of juice can contribute to kids consuming too many calories, because consuming calories in liquid form does not contribute to satiety (the feeling of fullness) in the same way as solid foods.
• Beverages made from 100% juice diluted with water (with no other added ingredients) can be a good choice, as they have fewer calories and less sugar, but they are often expensive. Budget tip: You can make your own for less by adding water to 100% juice.

Sugar-Sweetened Beverages

• Sugar-sweetened beverages are not recommended as part of a healthy diet for children and adolescents. Examples include sports drinks, soft drinks/sodas, energy drinks, fruit drinks, fruit-flavored drinks, fruitades, aguas frescas, sweetened waters, horchata, and sweetened coffee and tea drinks.
• While “juice drinks” and “fruit drinks” might sound healthy, they are mostly water and sugar. In fact, most fruit-flavored drinks have very little actual fruit juice and can have as much sugar as a soda!
• Drinks with added sugars offer little to no nutritional benefits, and consuming too many is linked to negative consequences for health—like weight gain and obesity, dental cavities, and development of unhealthy eating habits and sweet taste preferences. Learn more about how quickly added sugars in drinks can add up.
• The reality is that kids drink too many sugary drinks each day, and decreasing the amount and frequency of sugary drinks can improve their health both now and in the future.
• Pro Tip — How to Identify Sugary Drinks:
  • The Nutrition Facts label on most food and drink products lists the amount of added sugars per serving. 
  • Check the ingredients list on the container for added sugars. If there is at least one added sugar in the ingredients list, it’s a sugar-sweetened beverage. Some common names for these sugars include raw sugar, brown sugar, coconut sugar, cane sugar or cane syrup, corn sweetener, corn syrup, dextrose, sucrose, fructose, glucose, maltose, lactose, high fructose corn syrup, honey, agave, malt syrup, molasses, or fruit juice concentrates.

Non-Sugar Sweeteners

• Beverages with non-sugar sweeteners are not recommended for children and adolescents. Examples include diet sodas, low-calorie sports drinks, and juice drinks that contain non-sugar sweeteners.
• Non-sugar sweeteners (also known as diet sweeteners, non-nutritive sweeteners, no- or low-calorie sweeteners, or artificial sweeteners) include saccharin, aspartame, acesulfame-K, sucralose, neotame, advantame, stevia, monk fruit, and thaumatin.
• Emerging evidence in adults suggests that non-sugar sweeteners do not help with weight management as originally thought. In addition, this new evidence shows potential harmful effects of long-term use in adults, including increased risk of Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and mortality.
• There isn’t consistent evidence on the long-term health or safety impacts of consuming non-sugar sweeteners during childhood and adolescence. Thus, medical and nutrition experts agree, kids should avoid them.

Sports Drinks

• When we think of sweet drinks we often think of sodas; however, this category of beverages also includes sports drinks or electrolyte drinks, which are sweetened either with sugars, non-sugar sweeteners, or a combination of both.
• Sports drinks are marketed as a healthy option, and as a necessary drink for kids who do sports. But this is not the case. The benefits of sports drinks are appropriate only for athletes or individuals engaging in prolonged vigorous physical activity, or those activities performed in high temperatures and humidity. For the typical child or adolescent engaging in routine physical activity for less than three hours or high-intensity physical activity, like running, lasting one hour in normal weather conditions, the use of sports drinks in place of water is unnecessary.

Caffeine and Other Stimulants

• Beverages with caffeine and other stimulants are not recommended for children and adolescents. Examples include tea, coffee, and energy drinks.
• Medical professionals recommend that children and adolescents avoid all caffeine.
• While some caffeine intake may be okay in adolescence, there is uncertainty about the safe level in this age group. Many studies have reported negative effects on sleep quality, mental health, dietary patterns, and cardiovascular health among this age group. Learn more about the dangers of caffeine for children and adolescents.
• Nutrition labels are not required to disclose how much caffeine is in a product, so it can be difficult to know how much caffeine your child is drinking.
• All children and adolescents should avoid consuming energy drinks, which can contain large amounts of caffeine and sugar in a single serving as well as additional stimulants.